Reading Design

Designers who work in the day-to-day grind of deadline and presentation rarely find opportunity to bring a concentration of skills to one project. I’m going to suggest, however, that designers will benefit from following Warren Chappell’s example, and approach their work now and again as being written rather than assembled.

Allen, Dean. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Typography

Sticky Chocolate Company Goes Total Team  

Explore the total team approach to providing customer solutions in a large-team environment. Enjoy skits that dramatize team-building issues. Join in the discussion on approaches, alternatives, solutions, and results.

Allen, Pam, Morris Dean, Sharon L. Hayes and Gina Poole. STC Proceedings (1995). Careers>Management>Collaboration>Workplace

A Total Team Approach to Success  

We have had a very positive experience with a total team approach to accomplishing our business objectives. In our case, at the IBM Software Solutions Programming Laboratory (in Cary, NC, until March 1995, and now in Research Triangle Park), the business objectives are to produce successful software products. But the total team approach is not limited to a particular product or service. Total teams can help you improve the way multiple groups in your organization work together—to increase customer satisfaction through improved quality and speed of delivery, increase productivity, decreasc costs, and even improve morale.

Allen, Pam, Morris Dean, Sharon L. Hayes and Gina Poole. STC Proceedings (1995). Careers>Management>Collaboration

When the Customer Isn’t Right: A Workshop in Handling Conflicts When Clients Behave Unethically  

As consultants and freelancers, we try to adhere to the theory that our clients are always right. However, clients are sometimes dead wrong. Most of us at one time or another face situations in which clients ask us to behave unethically or treat us unethically. How do we handle such situations and maintain good client relations? This workshop explores the use of a value analysis model in resolving ethical dilemmas, using representative case studies.

Allen, Lori A. and Dean Graves. STC Proceedings (1996). Careers>Freelance>Ethics