A big thank you to Michael Nieling, founder and Creative Director at Ocupop, for his great talk at our annual Member Appreciation Event in June.

Michael talked about what it takes to succeed as a small agency through analytical and justified thought.

Notes:
[02:30] —How a Zoology and Engineering major makes it into the world of design.
[05:50] — Ocupop’s first identity client.
[07:00] — “Uncle Paul’s” strategy for selling a logo to Steve Jobs (and how it inspired Ocupop’s business philosophy).
[12:45] — The process for presenting a logo to a client.
[15:00] — Early iterations of the HTML5 logo.
[20:00] — The final HTML5 logo.
[22:45] — WHY! How asking “why” over and over is a powerful exercise.
[29:40] — The client is not always right, how to tell them when they’re wrong.
[30:15] — Simon Sinek and “Start with why.”
[33:20] — Why putting lipstick on a pig doesn’t work.
[41:00] — The gutsiest email Michael’s ever sent to a client.

Thanks to Ocupop and Kyle James of MIAD for putting together this great video.