These are 10 bonus challenges in addition to those that you'll find in "Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills," which is out now from HOW Books. They were released at South by Southwest Interactive at my author's talk.

1. BONUS CHALLENGES
You’re speaking Greek, I mean Latin. Having fun being
carded. Charting the path of your design decisions. This ad is
confidential. Going nuts over dangerous nuts. I wouldn’t touch
that client until you did. Two-person identity mashup. Just what
is that scent? Redesigning careers. Signs of beautiful progress.
For more challenges, click here to buy the book
Creative Workshop from Amazon.com!
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87 Shared Spac
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86 Realpolitik
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Concept,
Desig
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88 Perf
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Lost
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2. Lost in Translation
30 minutes Layout, writing
Your ad reads: “Lorem ispsum consequat dolor ix vox
populii.” Either your audience is fluent in designer’s
Latin, or you need to roll up your sleeves and start challenge
writing some real headlines. Crafting copy for a
Find a foreign-language adver-
design project can be fun if you have a strong
tisement and redesign it with text
command of your native tongue—though if writing is
you’ve written in your native tongue.
not your forte, the process can be nerve-wracking.
Try not to adjust the layout to fit
But don’t be scared. You’ve probably been a your words. What will help this
copywriter at some point in your life. Just think back foreign ad make sense to those
to when you took a trip to a foreign land. When who speak your language?
confronted by cryptic billboards and bewildering
ad images, you couldn’t help but write sales copy
on the fly. How else could you process that otherwise
unintelligible mass of foreign characters atop a
smiling, bikini-clad woman clutching a piping-hot
cappuccino?
“Most advertising
Use the following challenge to take a journey into
experts agree that
the mind of a copywriter. an attention-getting
headline is the
take it further
key ingredient in a
Find a television advertisement in a foreign
language, take screen captures from key scenes
successful advertisement.”
that incorporate written text, and retouch them with
—Robert W. Bly, The Copywriter’s Handbook
dialogue in your language that makes sense of the
progression of images.
2 Exercise 81

3. Creativity,
First Class
60 minutes Illustration, photography
On my desk is a pile of postcards at least three inches
tall, sent to me and my wife from people all over the
world. They are inscribed with sentiments evoking a challenge
specific sense of place.
Ask a friend to write a paragraph
For example: Here’s one of “The Bean” in Chicago’s for you from a vacation destination
Millennium Park, or a pink-purple sunrise over the wet- they returned from recently. Take
lands of Hillman Marsh in Ontario, or a bald cypress that paragraph and design a post-
tree at sunset in Louisiana. There are also many card for it that evokes a sense of
colorful landscapes of the mind: Andy Warhol’s silk place from that destination. Then,
screened “Four Monkeys,” classic paintings by Matisse when it’s complete, send it to your friend
and Chagall and van Gogh, a lovely gouache happy with the paragraph written on it.
face by the late designer Alan Fletcher. Postcards
purchased from art museums and bookstores, or
discovered in attics or at flea markets—often telling
tales of places that no longer exist, whose history
is preserved through these yellowing squares of take it further
thick paperboard.
Ask for multiple paragraphs from people that
In the following challenge, you’re going to design you know, then create an accordion-folded
your very own postcard, but for someone else’s travel postcard book that links the locations through
observations. Will they recognize the spirit of the place the overall design.
they’d visited from what you create?
“Like all great travelers,
I have seen more than
I remember and
remember more
than I have seen.”
—Benjamin Disraeli
Creativity, First Class 3

4. My Design Graph
60 minutes Information design
Don’t believe it when other designers tell you,
“You’re only as good as your last project.” It’s the
trajectory of our career that tells the story of our
growth as designers. Some designers just keep
“Habit is necessary;
creating the same project over and over again— it is the habit of having
which may lead to some solid design work, but
it does little to push them into new and unexplored
habits, of turning a trail
territory. The resulting portfolio will show competency into a rut, that must
in craft, but little curiosity.
be incessantly fought
Much in the same way that we meander toward
the coffee shop around the corner for our espresso
against if one is to
fix, breaking ourselves out of professional ruts takes remain alive.”
concerted, mindful effort over time. In this challenge,
you’ll dive into the nuts and bolts of what makes your —Edith Wharton
work tick, and uncover what new directions you may
want to take in the next phase of your career.
challenge
Look over at least 10 of the past designs you’ve created. Based on patterns that you detect in
use of typography, grid, color, photo and illustration use, and other factors, create an 11"x17"
chart that quantifies major trends in your work. Use this chart to highlight opportunities for new
approaches you can attempt in the next few months to spur your growth as a designer.
take it further
Draw inspiration from the work of Nicholas Felton at Feltron.com and create
an annual report of the trends you’ve exhibited across your last year’s complete
portfolio, as well as any other artistic outputs.
4 Exercise 83

5. Concept, Redacted
60 minutes Advertising
When providing documents under the Freedom of
Information Act, our security agencies sometimes see
fit to strike through confidential information with bold
black bars. When those documents are printed online
“The closer and more
or in magazines, we often spend more time trying to confidential our relation-
decipher exactly what’s missing rather than using
what is provided for context.
ship with someone, the
Use this visual trope to create a novel promotion for a
less we are entitled to
local nonprofit in your town. ask about what we are
not voluntarily told.”
—Louis Kronenberger
challenge
This is a two-person challenge.
In 45 minutes, you are both
responsible for creating individual
advertisements for a woman’s
take it further
health center. The ad’s headline
should read: “It’s a Private Matter.” Incorporate your ad concept into a pamphlet
For the last 15 minutes of the challenge, that can be distributed on college campuses.
swap your ads. You are now required to
selectively redact ten words from your friend’s
ad with a black marker. What will you delete,
and how will it influence the meaning of your
friend’s ad?
Concept, Redacted 5

6. GoingNuts.Org
60 minutes Interactive media, research
The humble peanut is a staple of the American larder,
present in everything from lunchbox sandwiches
to granola bars to ice cream to addictive peanut challenge
butter-filled pretzels. Whether we’re aware of it or
Create an interactive point-of-
not, peanuts find their way into pet foods, cosmetics,
purchase display intended to help
and a host of other household products that line our
people understand how peanuts
grocery store shelves.
are grown, harvested, and pro-
Due to the recent peanut scare, where dozens of cessed by manufacturers for use in
products have been recalled due to the possible household products. The display
presence of salmonella, some of those shelves have must convey an editorial slant grounded in
been bare—and some people are finding new foods your initial research on the subject, consider-
to replace the peanut as part of their diet, much to ing questions such as: Are peanuts an impor-
the chagrin of farmers and manufacturers. tant part of our daily diet? What is the impact
of their growth on American soil? How critical
Do people understand how the peanut came to
is their presence in available products and
prominence in our daily lives? Do they have all the
industries beyond processed foods?
facts about the recent recalls? In this challenge,
you’ll help to separate fact from fiction, and educate
the populace.
take it further
“Since new developments Bring the thinking behind your display into a mobile
are the products of a application that you can use while you’re in the store.
creative mind, we must Include in the application not only peanuts, but all
kinds of nuts that are utilized in processed foods.
therefore stimulate and
encourage that type of mind
in every way possible.”
—George Washington Carver
6 Exercise 85

7. Realpolitik
60 minutes Advertising
Every designer needs to have a clear ethical stance
toward the client projects that they’ll take on. Many
designers would rather not help sell industrial-grade challenge
weaponry or promote industries that may not
This is a challenge for two designers.
contribute a net-positive benefit for society.
Part 1: Write down on a slip of paper
However, designers often don’t know their own
three products that, for ethical or
boundaries with clarity until they’re offered what
political considerations, you just
seems to be a plum project, only to realize as they
can’t bring yourself to take on as
dig into the client problem that the end result runs
a client. Trade lists with another designer.
counter to their beliefs.
Choose one product from their list and
The following challenge will help you better under- sketch the most compelling, polished
stand the slippery slope that all designers face when billboard design you can muster promoting
taking on a client problem that may not align with that product.
their personal politics.
Part 2: You are now a key decision maker
representing one of the products you would
never take on as a client. The designer that
“Realpolitik, n.: politics based on practical created a billboard for your company must
and material factors rather than on theoretical give a three-point presentation as to why
or ethical objectives.” their design will meet your product’s needs
—Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 6th Edition in the marketplace. You will be allowed to
ask three questions regarding their work,
press-conference style, in order to better
understand the ethical stance they are
take it further
taking with regard to said product. Then
Create a poster that you’ll keep in your studio that out- you must trade places with the other
lines your personal policies towards the kinds of work designer, and present your billboard
you’d like to do in the future—and the kind that you concept to them—while they play-act
should always decline. being your client.
Realpolitik 7

8. Shared Space
15 minutes Identity development, stationery
Designers band together in many ways: through their
tribal appreciation of typefaces, their considered
purchases of well-crafted products, their affinity for
social media chatter, and so forth.
“It’s really hard to be
Designers also share their studio spaces, seeking roommates with people
camaraderie through long days spent sketching out
ideas, kerning headlines, finding that perfect photo if your suitcases are
for the otherwise pristine web page layout. All work
and no fun over just a few days can make designing much better than theirs.”
feel like… work.
—J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
In this challenge for two designers, quickly determine
how you can share not only your workspace, but also
the space that you share on paper.
challenge
In order to save on rent for your new design studio, you’re going to split it with a fellow designer.
And to further slash your operating costs, you’re also going to share letterhead, while still pre-
serving the identities of each of your separate businesses. Over the course of 15 minutes, deter-
mine how you can integrate both of your design identities into a single sheet of paper for client
communications.
take it further
Design a portfolio website that highlights both of your efforts separately—and that
continues the conceit of your stationery system.
8 Exercise 87

9. Perfume
Is Overrated
60 minutes Branding, packaging
Needles floating down from a Douglas fir. Popcorn in
a big ceramic bowl, fresh from the kettle. Salt wafting
high on the morning sea breeze. challenge
Whole industries have been built from laboratories Invent a new brand of “natural
synthesizing perfect simulacra of things that exist natu- scents” for men and women that
rally in the world around us—then selling those scents are neither deodorant nor perfume.
to us, whether through highly seductive advertising or This brand will require a new cat-
the “bonus” smells that assault our nostrils as we inter- egory and method of selling them,
act with people throughout our day. meaning you can’t stock them in
perfume shops, pharmacies, or department
What would the world be like if people relied more on
stores. Consider how these scents would
“natural scents” that we enjoy out in the world, rather
be applied on the body, at what price point
than those that were designed by perfumers? With this
they would be sold profitably at volume (or
challenge, let your nose lead you to a novel answer to
not sold at all), and summarize your recom-
that question.
mendation in a one-page cheat sheet that
explains everything a person would need to
know about your brand.
“I love the smell of juice
boxes in the morning.” take it further
Design how one would apply your “natural scents” as
—Robert Duvall
a physical prototype with instructions. Give them to a
friend and see if they can understand what it is and
how it’s utilized.
Perfume Is Overrated 9

10. Rifftastic
30 minutes Poster design
Finding steady employment has been hard for many
of today’s designers.
challenge
A few years ago, when our economy slowed down,
many agencies and companies ended up cutting Your local municipal government
back on marketing, advertising, and other core has tasked you with creating an
activities that require designers. In the aftermath, the eye-catching poster promoting the
market was flooded with thousands of highly talented new career center that just opened
design professionals. in your town—specifically speaking
to retraining out-of-work designers.
In conversations with some of my out-of-work
Can you sell your creative peers on why they
colleagues who have struggled to land a stable gig,
should find alternative employment?
many of them are now using their time off to seek out
creative and fulfilling work—whether for new clients or
for their own personal projects and efforts. For those
that haven’t fared well, there often aren’t many stones
to overturn for new jobs—and some are falling back take it further
on previous professions or other skills lateral to design,
Design the career center from the inside out, knowing
until they can land just the right gig.
you’re creating a space for people to give up what
This challenge is for you to help convince designers, they want to do. What would the experience be like?
through design, to not be designers. What kind of materials would a designer receive there
that they couldn’t find anywhere else?
“Hunger is not the worst
feature of unemployment;
idleness is.”
—William E. Barrett
10 Exercise 89

11. Please Sign Here
30 minutes Environmental graphics
I worked with an excellent proofreader whose cubicle
you would never approach until she had flipped a
little sign from “No Coffee” to “Had Coffee.” challenge
At that same job, one of the designers kept a mini- Create an interactive piece of
whiteboard up to date with her ongoing projects, signage you can place on your
what’s on her plate, and when she was planning to design studio door, desk, or other
take lunch—so she wouldn’t be surprised by rogue clearly visible place. The signage
project managers while she was running out the door. must be easily modifiable to note
your current project status, overall
These designed moments become part of our studio
mental state, and any other data points that
environment and culture. So for this challenge, show
are critical to the health and wellbeing of
us how you share your status to your co-workers—
yourself and your co-workers.
like only a designer can.
take it further
“A sign on the Door of How would your sign translate into an iPad or
Opportunity reads Push.” mobile application?
—Anonymous
Please Sign Here 11

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12 http://www.scribd.com/doc/42672850/Creative-Workshop Exercise #