The new CA Design Annual just came out. It’s one of my favorite award books of the year. Maybe it’s because I’m a writer and design is not some­thing I do, but def­i­nitely some­thing I appreciate. 

I can’t think of any­thing that com­mu­ni­cates as quickly as strong design. It’s so imme­di­ate. It pen­e­trates the soul. Design, good design, makes words obso­lete. That’s a lit­tle hard for a writer to say, but I believe it’s true. I also believe we have one of the best design depart­ments in the coun­try – includ­ing that tal­ents of MDFX.

Below are sev­eral exam­ples of great design from the CA DESIGN ANNUAL:

Don’t wait for your super­vi­sor to give you a review. Get­ting a review once or twice a year isn’t nearly enough. If you want to get a review with more impact, review your­self every day.

Ask those around you for their can­dor in your job per­for­mance. How you did on an assign­ment, how you were in a pre­sen­ta­tion, your demeanor, how you came across with a client, with your peers, with those you report to, with those who report to you.

Don’t wait for some­one to approach you. You should approach them.

I’ve always believed that reviews are mean­ing­less unless peo­ple are moti­vated to change them­selves. That’s why reviews tend to be the same year in and year out. The per­son who was late for meet­ings five years ago is prob­a­bly still late for meet­ings today.

Ask peo­ple their opin­ion. Tell them to be hon­est. Really lis­ten to what that per­son is say­ing. And then here’s the hard part: change.

After 22 years, Cliff Free­man is clos­ing its doors. This is sig­nif­i­cant because Cliff Free­man has done some of the best TV com­mer­cials of all time and award-winning TV com­mer­cials are not enough to sus­tain success.

Before Cliff Free­man opened his own shop in 1987, he cre­ated “Where’s the Beef?” at Dancer Fit­ger­ald Sam­ple. This is arguably the most famous fast-food com­mer­cial of all time. Take a look.

As the story goes, Clara Peller, the elderly woman in the Wendy’s com­mer­cial was hard of hear­ing. So some­one had to tug on her leg when it was time for her to deliver her line.

Free­man went on to open his own shop and he cre­ated some of the fun­ni­est com­mer­cials ever for Lit­tle Ceasar’s Pizza Pizza. This one called “Origami” is one of my per­sonal favorites:

Cliff Free­man also cre­ated the char­ac­ter of Wendy the Snap­ple Lady, amongst others.

And now they are out of busi­ness. Some argue that it’s due to poor account ser­vice, oth­ers says they just didn’t replace busi­ness they lost, but I think you have to look at the fact that Cliff Free­man spe­cial­ized in funny TV com­mer­cials and that isn’t enough in today’s ever-changing marketplace. 

More and more con­sumers are spend­ing time on the inter­net and with social net­work­ing. Cliff Free­man didn’t stay up. We need to keep our ears and eyes open. We need to remain rel­e­vant. Today it’s a two-way conversation.

The best ads always tell the truth in a com­pelling way. This one from Nike ran the day after the NY Marathon. That’s today. The ad was writ­ten either by some­one who is a run­ner or some­one who under­stands run­ners.

It’s impor­tant to find bal­ance and have a pas­sion and inter­est in things out­side of our business. 

In addi­tion to the obvi­ous ones like fam­ily, I appre­ci­ate ping pong, Bruce Lee movies, Bob Dylan lyrics, impres­sion­ism, crispy bacon, long hot show­ers, walk­ing, run­ning, watch­ing foot­ball, drink­ing red wine, choco­late, old Stones, Beck, nearly any poem from Charles Bukowski, TMZ, good movies, bad movies, hot dogs — but only at base­ball games, day hikes, milk shakes, jalapeño pop­pers, unagi (that’s eel), dogs, movies by Quentin Taran­tino, Mar­tin Scors­ese, Wes Ander­son, trees, leaves, trails, mag­a­zines, the smell of fresh-baked cook­ies, rock climb­ing, Fris­bee, cold Coors Light, old Pink Pan­ther movies, Jolly Ranch­ers, hang­ing with my friends, flip­ping chan­nels, apple cob­bler, road trips, AC/DC, rain, clean cars, black and white pho­tog­ra­phy, going through old boxes of mem­o­ra­bilia and falling asleep.