Issue 37: Zero Proof
On lovely beverages, dinosaur metal, and freedom in limits.
🍹 Shaken, not stirred
As someone who doesn’t Not Drink™ but also barely drinks, one of my greatest joys in recent years has been the evolution of mocktail culture. As so much progress crumbles around us, and still more progress is infuriatingly complicated, it’s one area of life that’s just better. I’m not above a Shirley Temple, don’t get me wrong, but the fact that it took so long to evolve beyond the Bar Mitzvah Special is, frankly, pure laziness. Where not drinking, for whatever reason, has long been viewed as a limit (or, let’s be real, a tragedy), increasingly mixologists and consumers alike have begun to frame the zero-proof limitation in a new light — not as a restriction, but an opportunity.
My lovely clients often apologize for the restrictions I have to operate under on design projects. Maybe the source material feels dry and complicated. Maybe we have to work with strict government entities. This is, of course, before we even approach accessibility. Of course, restrictions are a challenge. But I always say if I can’t operate within those restrictions, I don’t deserve my job. In fact, if anything, the more limits I have, the better the final result. When you can do anything, what do you do? The key, I find, is not to view a project in terms of what you can’t do, but to focus on what you can. I’m not a vegan, but one of my favorite restaurants is, because their food is all about highlighting plants. I put no restrictions on the language I use (much to my mom’s chagrin), but good comedy doesn’t need swearing to land a joke. Every person, situation, or project has unique needs. True creativity centers those needs, knowing that meeting them is not only a requirement, but its reason for being.
That’s why this week, Guidelines is zero-proof. We’re sipping on mocktails, we’re learning how boundaries enhance our results, and we’re learning why Finnish children are more hardcore than the rest of us will ever be. Read on for all this and more!
🍋🟩 Moodboard of the week
As trendy as mocktails have become, zero-proof spirit companies and bartenders alike are smart to recognize their success is born of killer branding and presentation. The value of a mocktail is usually clear at first sip (and clearer still the following morning) but none of that matters if you can’t get people in the door. This week’s moodboard is lush, refreshing, and tasteful in every sense. Click below to view the full board on Pinterest!
🔍 Question of the week
“How can I be treated as a professional designer in my volunteer work for non-profits?”
To begin with, I commend you for lending your design skills as a volunteer! I know first-hand how hard it can be to work for free (or a discounted rate), even when you believe strongly in what you’re working on. There are no easy projects in design, and even when I know I don’t have a lot of time to allocate to a project, I, like most designers, struggle to do less than my best work, which is a huge commitment to offer up.
Second, this problem is so real. One of the great struggles in business — not just design — is that when even nice people know you’re giving them a discount, or doing them a favor of any kind, they will often undervalue your work, take advantage of you, or ask for further favors they would never otherwise ask for. I’ve seen this across industries, and it’s one of the reasons I tend to be really strict with my rates, even with friends and family.
But of course, sometimes people really can’t pay, and you don’t want this common tendency to keep you from being the generous person you are. So, what’s a designer to do?
Above anything else, success in a project like this is going to come down to clear boundaries and honest communication. When an interaction is more transactional (i.e. you’re getting paid) it’s easier to establish exactly what the client gets in exchange – how many concepts, how many rounds of revision, what the concepts will entail, or when and how they can communicate with you. When you’re working for free, you lose the transactional element, so limits are not established by default, even though they are just as important. Free work is a beautiful gift. It is not an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Being treated professionally in volunteer work starts with explicitly establishing, upfront, both what professional treatment you expect, and what the client can expect from you. More specific is always better, particularly when it comes to process, your working style, and the deliverables they will get at the end. This may mean a contract, or it might just be an email, but it’s important that these expectations are communicated unambiguously, both so they actually know what you require and so that they understand that this is a professional project like any other.
The real success, however, will come from enforcing those boundaries. This means pushing back if clients cross clearly-established boundaries or otherwise undervalue your work and time. But (and this is usually the harder part), you have to be strict with yourself too. Stick to the hours you’ve allocated and working hours that won’t burn you out. When it’s time to switch your focus to paid work, don’t hit snooze — actually do it. When someone asks you for more revisions than agreed on, don’t just sigh and accept it, kindly communicate that you’ve reached the limit of what you can offer for free.
As someone who is naturally very afraid of this kind of communication, I’ve been amazed at how transformative it is both to my working relationships and the work I am able to do. Clear boundaries don’t just secure professional treatment; they give your clients a new appreciation for you and the work you are doing. It’s a hard habit to build, but it’s truly a win for everyone.
🎧 Soundtrack of the week
“Appropriate” is a relative and subjective term we often overvalue. But whatever your definition, every song on this playlist meets it, while going significantly harder than it should. From the Into the Spider-verse soundtrack to everyone’s favorite Finnish, dinosaur-based, heavy metal band for children, this week’s soundtrack promises fun for all ages and delivers.
💙 My Favorite Things
As a textbook perfectionist, I find letting go in the creative process really hard — a trait that can often keep me from getting started in the first place. The more time I spend in this business, the more I realize that both “done over perfect” and creation for creation’s sake benefit everyone in the creative process. This post from Dublin-based designer Manas Trivedi (@manasseto on Instagram) reinforces that beautifully.
Of course, the irony is that this isn’t bad. The colors pop, and the custom font is equal parts sleek and fun. But I’m a designer. I get that sometimes good branding is what gets us where we need to go, even if what we’re branding is bad design. If it works, who am I to argue?
Click here to view the original post on Instagram and check out his other work!
🌱 Touching Grass
📖 What I’m reading: I’ve been recommending Sharon McMahon’s Instagram, Substack, and book, The Small and the Mighty, to everyone. But of course, I haven’t actually read the book myself. Oops. This week, it’s on the list.
🎧 What I’m listening to: I’ve been promising my sister for weeks that I’d start listening to World’s Beyond Number’s game-based storytelling podcast, The Wizard, The Witch, and the Wild One. I’m not going to lie, I’m a little intimidated by how much of it there is, but I’m checking it out this week.
📺 What I’m watching: I mean, you know it’s all Taskmaster all the time. It’s the only way to get through these troubled times.
🌮 What I’m eating: I still have a lot of minimally-perishable taco ingredients left over from last week (tortillas, crema, queso fresco, limes, etc.) but I went through the shromps way too fast, so this week I think I’m going to do a chicken tinga.
🍹What I’m sipping: With all this talk of mocktails, you know I’m going to have to make one this week. My sister Francesca, who is both a teetotaler and a supreme mixologist recommends her “wait, there’s seriously no alcohol in this?” base recipe of 2 oz syrup (i.e. elderflower syrup), 2 oz citrus juice (i.e. lemon or lime), and 2 oz zero-proof gin, shaken with lots of mint and served with bitters over ice. And, she reminds me, an expressed citrus peel. Duh.