design: December 2004 Archives

"At 28, John Doyle was an overworked New York investment banker on the fast track. By most measures, he was a success. But he was also miserable. So during a semiannual review 2 1/2 years into the job, he simply quit. 'Almost immediately I lost 35 pounds,' says Doyle. For four months, he did little more than relax, rollerblade through Central Park, and read books. 'Honestly, it was one of the happiest times in my life,' he says."

-- Ways to fix your life: Quit your job

I had another thought today.

*insert your own joke her*

It's actually another thesis project, to go along with my previous possibilities. I was in Border's reading the back cover blurb of the Illuminatus Trilogy. It promises to confront various issues, including the pyramid that shows up on the dollar bill.

Well... ignoring the conspiratorial overtones of that particular novel, it made me think about the appearance of money. Being a designer, and a lonely, lonely person, I spend most of my time thinking about the appearance of things. Initially I thought that it could be interesting to redo the paper cash of the US. Clean it up. Make it more in line with modern culture, rather than a collection of antiquated symbolism and archaic security features. Who doesn't see the anachronism of paying for your re-writable compact discs with a piece of flaccid paper covered in imagery that hasn't been contemporary since before FedEx was powered by the Pony Express?

But just as quickly as that thought came to me, I realized it wouldn't work. It would be a pointless exercise, doomed to a miserable failure in even the most basic of focus groups or peer review. Cash--cold, harsh greenbacks--are one of those rare physical items that people consciously trust in the image of more than in the physical nature. It's a comfort item... a security blanket. In a vain culture, this ugly, little, wrinkled thing inspires cult-like devotion.

So yeah... to cut the thought short, that was my thesis. To find out how and why people value the physical object that is a dollar bill. Why are people thrown into near revolt when a pale wash of color is added to the $20 bill. Why does a bigger picture of the president cause people to declare it to be play money?

Anyway... I call it a thesis project because I specifically don't want to get into it here.

Oh yeah...

I decided to get a copy of Quickbooks.

While I am known among former coworkers as more than a bit obsessed and dare-I-say talented at being organized, it doesn't seem to be helping much with billing.

Up until now, I have been using Quark to write up estimates and invoices manually. And the bank account is kept track of in Quicken.

But Quicken isn't built to handle business. It cannot generate invoices. It cannot keep a database of clients. It cannot tell you which invoices haven't been paid yet. It cannot handle tax issues for you. Quicken is essentially a notebook with a really good calculator.

But Quickbooks actually handles the business aspect and the account maintenance.

And right now, Amazon has an amazing deal on it... ends up being half price.

Have you ever had someone stick their hand out in such a way that you weren't sure wether they expected a handshake or a high-5, (well... low-5 actually)? It's all the more difficult to tell when it's over the shoulder. And coming from a person who would seem comfortable with either.

And I didn't really think of any of these things until afterwards.

So, yes, I am a paranoid freak, why do you ask?

In some businesses and positions, it would be easy to say that you should always default to the handshake, as the least likely to be offensive. But... you know... not really. Because building up a casual relationship with your clients is incredibly important.