Apparently there is not one but two books out right now that dissect the special hell that is cubicle life. Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris came out in 2007. The more recent, Personal Days by Ed Park (here’s the first chapter), was just reviewed in the New York Times Book Review. It’s a good review, and the reviewer suggests really, with all the corporate crap out there in the world and the soaring unemployment rates, maybe we need a lot more than two novels on the topic.

Even if you don’t have the time to read the book because you’re busy trying to figure out how to quit your office job and make it independently, the review is worth a read. I especially like this line: “Today, it seems, notions of work have been transformed from ‘every man a king’ to mass e-mailings of cat pictures.”

I can haz a job as a book reviewer, anybody?

For the latest installment in my ongoing, informal series of interviews with coworking movers and shakers, I hit up Jerome Chang for some answers about what he’s doing at his place, Blankspaces. Blankspaces is a coworking place in Los Angeles, a for-profit model with various flexible rental plans. Chang is the founder. Besides this new venture, he’s got a really impressive resume as an architect. Among other projects he worked on Google’s headquarters. Herewith, a few words with Jerome, who answered via email.

Spike Gillespie: When/how were you first introduced to the idea of coworking?
Jerome Chang: During the construction of this space, I was approached by a “tech” guy who posted me on the Coworking Wiki. He heard about it through someone else who thought I could host BarCamp LA.

Spike: What prompted you to open a coworking space?
Jerome: I wanted to open my own office, but share it with a few people because servers, copiers, etc. are all pretty expensive for 1 person. I began to notice how many people were working in cafés such as Starbucks. I ran some numbers, pitched a biz plan, found some investors, and opened doors 4/3/2008. It took 18 months from the 1st day I opened up that first spreadsheet.

Spike: You have a really impressive architect resume — are you still doing that or are you fully focused on BLANKSPACES now?
Jerome: Thanks. I do both. I am the architect for a new 5,000 sf restaurant to be opened in Hollywood this fall; and a 3,000 sf boutique hotel renovation on the edge of Koreatown. I now don’t market myself as an architect because Blankspaces keeps me busy enough that I just wait for projects to come to me. I’m very fortunate for not having to hustle for that next project.

At the risk of boasting, I want to tell you that I also teach architecture one night/wk. This past year, I’ve taught in Otis College of Art and Design’s architecture dept, UCLA Extension’s landscape architecture dept, and FIDM’s interior design dept. (Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising). Yes, I sleep 7+ hrs/night.

Spike: You’ve chosen to go for an atmosphere that includes cubicles and more of a “traditional” workspace feel than some other coworking spaces. What informed this decision?
Jerome: I’m an architect, which means I design a space top-down. I also have resources to furniture, finishes and construction to which most others probably don’t have access. This approach is in my opinion, more comprehensive of a build-out, which I think is necessary for the flexibility, modularity, and many types of people who would use the space. Besides, I think a more “professional” environment is more appropriate for client meetings and spaces/events for corporations.

Spike: You’re also using a for-profit business model (as is LaunchPad Coworking). How did you decide on this model? Did you take any heat for it?
Jerome: I’m all for pushing collaboration and communities — if profit is what it takes to generate more participants and advance the cultural movement, then profit it is. Between the time and effort, money, and liability, we should be rewarded for that contribution and exposure. Besides, I didn’t know about coworking at all until I’d already started construction, so I was not “influenced” by the altruism.

Spike: You opened in March 2008, right? How’s it going? Are you full a lot?
Jerome: March was more of a pre-opening — there were temporary workspaces until construction finished up. People didn’t actually work in the spaces as you see it now until 4/3/2008. It’s going well. We add a couple of people every week, and there are a good number of events and walk-ins. We have a good number of people everyday to create that buzz, but our capacity can handle many more.

Spike: Is it tricky dealing with reservations? How do you keep from conflicting overlaps?
Jerome: We just schedule them accordingly. We’re about to launch our online reservation system so that people can see for themselves what’s available.

Spike: What’s your cancellation policy?
Jerome: It’s in our members’ agreements. Basically, if you don’t cancel within 30 min of your start time, you’re charged for that time slot and we can also let someone else use that space.

Spike: Given your location, I’ve created this narrative in which the place is full of eccentric and neurotic screenwriters toiling away at screenplays. What’s the reality — are you getting a good mix from across numerous disciplines?
Jerome: Yes. We have writers, producers, a developer, medical sales rep, website project manager, educational consultant, music label, PR, filmmaker, graphic designer, and a couple of tech start-ups.

Spike: The owner of Cubes and Crayons — as quoted in NYT yesterday — says she has to actually go home to work now, since being in the coworking space involves constantly talking to coworkers (because they are her customers). Are you able to get work done at Blankspaces?
Jerome: Haha. It’s kind of ironic that way sometimes, huh?  I’m transferring more and more duties to others, but yes, sometimes it’s a bit of a balance. My space (5,000 sf) is big enough for me to “hide” in a remote cubicle or private office.

Spike: What else would you like to tell me?
Jerome: This whole coworking movement, plus the potential to explore so many work/online/cultural components is amazing — I hope I can help spearhead anything related to that. And I LOVE working for myself, not BY myself.

*****
Be sure also to check out the awesome 1-minute video about Blankspaces.

[the following guest post is by Tina Rosenzweig, General Manager of LaunchPad Coworking]

I originally met Marc Kuehl at the Austin Farmers’ Market at the Triangle, which happens every Wednesday afternoon here in Austin. Julie bought his cheese first and gave me a taste and it was amazing. We talked with him a little bit about LaunchPad Coworking, particularly the café, and I gave him my card.

He called me several weeks later — he’d seen the blog post we ran about the market — and he said everyone at the market was thrilled about it, that they really care about people who care about this kind of food. And he said he’d like to make it feasible for LaunchPad Coworking to be able to serve it without killing the price point, which really is a challenge,

Marc makes his cheese at a farm in Waco so, with a trip to Dallas planned, I figured I’d stop by on the way up and see the operation. I called to tell him I’d be dropping in and he said I should plan on staying at least four hours, which surprised me. I had no idea there was four hours worth of stuff to see up there. I thought I was going to a small farm where they make cheese.

But when I got there — the place is called Homestead Heritage — I realized it’s a huge community of people who make their all sorts of things. Some live onsite and some don’t. They farm with horses and they grow all their own food, they do beautiful woodworking and iron works, they have a gristmill run by a watermill they use to grind oats which they make into flour and pancake and cookie and muffin mixes. And they have a restaurant that serves the food they grow.

He showed me around the entire place. We went into the woodworking shop and there were children making violins.

There were people slaughtering chickens, one by one, in a very humanitarian way.

A few ex-kibbutzniks from Israel live there, and I think they were partly drawn to the place due to similarities to kibbutz life. They’re living off the fat of the land out there, a simpler lifestyle because they feel the world is too crazy and there is a better way to teach children how to be whole people and to sustain themselves, each other and their chosen way of life. It was very peaceful.

Marc wound up there after living through some rough times on the East coast and needing big change in his life. He had some cousins who were involved with the farm. They invited him down. He visited and he fell in love with it. One cousin pointed out that a lot of milk was being wasted because they have excess milk. She said she knew how to make cheese but not how to market it. Marc had experience with marketing and so his new adventure began.

One of the coolest things about the place is that they’re very open. The public is invited for a massive Thanksgiving that goes on for three days. They have a “Center for Essential Education” which offers all sorts of classes; woodworking, blacksmithing, and of course cheesemaking and many others. They are religion-based, but they’re very transparent and they don’t proselytize.

They also have a beautiful general store — they made everything there themselves.

Another thing they’re known for is rescuing old barns, bringing them to the property and restoring them. And the restaurant is incredible — I had the most wonderful salad with everything home grown from the garden and the most exquisite ice cream made from truly farm-fresh milk.

I’m really looking forward to using the cheese — they brand it at Brazos Valley Cheese — in the café.

And making the connection with Marc is inspiring me to think bigger about coworking. While he will deliver to us, not all small vendors can, so I’m hoping to get some coop buying going with other restaurants downtown to make it feasible for small vendors to add delivery. Just reaching out to owners and managers of other establishments is forging an informal coworking in itself. I really like the idea of cooperative marketing and purchasing.

So thanks, Marc, for the inspiration and, of course, for the fantastic cheese.

By applause, how many of you, at some time — whether during an elementary school spelling bee, a high school algebra class, some corporate meeting — have had to deal with an annoying smarty pants peer? You know who I’m talking about. These folks really are smart, really do get (almost) all the answers right and often also get all of the teacher’s/boss’s accolades.

I admit, there were certainly times in my life (I suppose there still are) when I strove to be the Brilliant One. Yes, that’s right, I can both be irritated by a certain type of person and also try, in my own fashion, to become that person.

Interesting to reflect on this in light of recently reading about three decades worth of research by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck. As the New York Times reports, Dweck’s findings show that

Those who believe they were born with all the smarts and gifts they’re ever going to have approach life with what she calls a “fixed mind-set.” Those who believe that their own abilities can expand over time, however, live with a “growth mind-set.”

The short story is that sometimes the genius types can’t reach their maximum potential due, in part, to fear of making mistakes. Whereas the rest of us — maybe because we’re fearless but probably just because mistakes are unavoidable — forge ahead, knowing we’re going to screw up, but viewing our errors as opportunities for growth and learning. Which means that, yep, we actually have a chance of doing better than the fixed mindset types.

Or, as the NYT put it: In this case, nurture wins out over nature just about every time.

Teamwork can be another obstacle for the heralded egghead in the workplace. Why? Because that person might be spending way too much time showing off her flexed brain muscle and not nearly enough time genuinely collaborating.

Apparently, whether one clings to a fixed or growth attitude can affect all aspects of life, not just work. So relationships with kids, friends, and romantic partners all can benefit or suffer, too.

Good news for you superstar eggheads, though. Dweck says even if you are currently of a fixed mindset, it is possible to switch to the other side and become more growth-oriented. The hard part? Letting go of old, pre-conceived notions of yourself. Which can be a real stretch. But then, if you think about it, that’s the whole point, isn’t it?

The good folks at Seedstage decided we’d be a great project to promote their concept. We heartily agree :)

Seedstage is an online digital media platform and channel dedicated to showcasing the stories behind early stage startups and emerging technology companies.

We’re delighted they chose us to showcase their talents! Below is a “4 minute feature film” showcasing LaunchPad Coworking.

Kevin, Charles, and Kyle - thanks so much for making us look good :)

We’re always thrilled to get press. Who isn’t? Seeing a feature article in our hometown newspaper, the Austin American-Statesman is, of course, particularly gratifying.

Omar Gallaga, Statesman technology culture reporter, Digital Savant blogger, recap master of Smallville for Television Without Pity, and general digital renaissance man, wrote a sweet feature for this Sunday’s paper. Omar visited with me, the great guys at Conjunctured, and the folks from Caroline Collective in Houston for the article.

Granted, I’m biased, but it seems to me this article captures both the spirit of coworking and the incredible opportunities for different flavors of coworking about to come online.

The way we work is changing. The internet, ubiquitous broadband access, frustration with opaque corporate and political administrations, and high gas prices, have led to the acceptance of the independent/mobile worker as a viable, even preferable alternative to the traditional combination of on-site employees and in-house agencies.

The way we work is changing. Independent workers don’t need to pretend to be big companies. We make a better impression by working in smart ways, in smart places, with smart people.

The way we work is changing. Coworking is in its infancy. We’re just beginning to recognize and acknowledge the needs of a newly mobile, demanding workforce.

It’s way fun to be a part of this sea change :)

For visitors new to coworking

You also might enjoy:
Article announcing the commencement of demolition :)
LaunchPad Coworking under the hood
We’re publishing our 3D renderings and floorplans

Photo taken by the supremely talented Bret Gerbe and blatantly lifted from the Austin American Statesman. Hope that’s ok.

In a recent post, Austinite Michelle Greer wrote about visiting Pittsboro, NC, and being impressed with how so many businesses are really, truly locally owned and operated. Of Austin and the need to keep it weird, she says:

We need to support locally owned businesses. We should watch local acts… We should use Austin hosts and use Austin software. A person living in Austin should feel like he or she can open a business and people will support it. If it sucks, tell that Austinite what their business can do to earn your business. If we don’t support each other, who will?

These are good points. We have, from the beginning, vowed to be as local and green as we can be. That said, the process is a bit trickier in reality than it is when we’re sitting around scheming to come up with a plan that will not only be good and green, but ideally will single-handedly put an end to global warming and ultimately give Al Gore a chance to take a much needed vacation.

For example — we want to use as many local vendors as possible throughout LaunchPad Coworking. We’re using a local architect, local web developers and designers, and our extended team is culled locally. We’re using green materials everywhere, and of course we’re recycling (and believe me, you’d be astonished how many restaurants and retail stores don’t recycle). We’re even composting right in downtown Austin.

Going green and local on the menu is another story. We’re doing as much as possible, but the hurdles are impressive. It is not possible to run a smooth operation if we have a zillion small vendors making eight deliveries a day spread out over the week. Some local vendors don’t even deliver, which means if we use them, we have to commit to driving around and picking up. Gas prices are high, to put it mildly, and all that driving, even if gas was cheap, is not exactly green.

Another obstacle concerns the Venn diagram where “local organic” produce overlaps with “seasonal.” Sure a lot of folks say they prefer the local stuff. But that means our menu will have to change to accommodate Mother Nature. Big grocers offer all sorts of produce year round, but they get it from far, far away when it’s out of season here. So will you really be okay with it if we have to forego tomatoes for a stretch? The tradeoff being that, when we do have tomatoes, if we go 100% local, you can know for certain those tomatoes are fresh picked and from just down the road and, more importantly, as Tina Rosenzweig puts it, “will taste really frickin’ great.”

There’s the cost issue, too. Tina points out, “It’s easier and cheaper to just call [food distributor] Benny Keith and have a truckload of non-green stuff delivered. Being healthy and environmentally sound is really expensive.”

But we remain committed to the goal of green-as-possible. We’re getting one hell of an education learning about what’s available. We promise we’ll always have a weekly local salad. And we’re working to find other downtown vendors interested in combining our buying power to give us all more options.

Tina is going to make sure our café staff is educated so they can explain any seasonal menu changes and clarify when some items seem priced a bit high. We’ve already committed to using a local coffee roaster (Texas Coffee Traders), and Austin-based Luxe Sweets will supply all of our muffins, cookies and scones.

The challenge is worth it. “I’ve not had the luxury of trying to do this before,” she says. That’s how we like to look at the hurdles — luxury moments we can look back on clearing in awe.

Resources

Wheatsville Co-op has a great list of local vendors within a hundred miles of Austin.
Barr Mansion — the certified organic event venue in East Austin.
Whole Foods — which, though mammoth, did start here as a small shop.
Farm to Market — Independent grocer on South Congress.
Greenling Grocery — delivers local produce and produce from within a 200 mile radius.
East Side Café — grows a lot of their own ingredients.
Johnson’s Backyard Garden — delivers affordable boxes of local produce to private homes.

I love obituaries. Clarification: I don’t love the part of an obit that means that somebody, somewhere, is grieving the loss of a loved one. But you sure can learn a lot about a person, especially when an entire exciting life is crammed into a couple newspaper columns.

Such is the case with the recent obituary of David Caminer, who died on June 19th. He was 92. I’d never heard of him before but, as it turns out, he is credited with helping to develop “the world’s first business computer.”

Short version: Caminer was a leftist Brit who scoffed education and instead went to work for J. Lyons & Company, a big tea outfit in England, when he was 21. Tea being to England what coffee is to Seattle, the company thrived, operating tea shops, a catering branch, hotels, and other endeavors. Which meant they had a lot of information to keep track of.

As his obit reports, “Mr. Caminer’s role was finding ways to retain traditional clerical rigor while speeding up the company’s logistics and finances many times over.” So he took a look at early computer research being conducted in the U.S. and, using that came up with LEO — Lyons Electronic Office. “LEO performed its first calculation on November 17, 1951, running a program to evaluate costs, prices and margins of that week’s baked output.”

Quoting an article in New Scientist, the obit offers the following analogy: “In today’s terms it would be like hearing that… McDonald’s invented the Internet.”

The first LEO was turned off in 1965, earning the computer an obituary of its own, one crediting the machine for so many hours of service.

Reading the obituary, and all the data that Caminer had to manage, I had to think of our own adventures creating Spacer, the software application specific to our new business model.

Maybe we’ll name a teapot after LEO.

There’s been a deluge of blog posts recently examining how companies such as Southwest, Comcast, and Zappos are now using Twitter to improve customer service. Repeated examples point to instances where disgruntled customers send out a snarl of a tweet and get back near-instant replies offering resolution. To be fair, there are also numerous examples of positive tweets and the responses they net.

It got me wondering how I really feel about companies using social networks — originally designed for individuals to interact with other individuals — for marketing purposes. Because customer service is — or at least should be — a significant component of any marketing department.

David Armano notes among other things, that “The fact that Zappos and Southwest are finding success in a social network like Twitter is not surprising. These are companies that get both business and the customer experience.”

Over at ReadWriteWeb, Sarah Perez wrote an extensive post detailing several Twitter-based customer service incidents. She makes a good point when she cautions: “While it’s nice to know that Twitter is available as a way of getting a company’s attention, all methods of customer service and support should be treated with the same consideration. By pouncing on the Twitter complaints while ignoring the emails, one has to wonder if the company is, in fact, more concerned with reputation than they are with service.”

So is this all this recent grumpy-tweet placation a fast moving trend that will fade once companies are inundated by daily mountains of 140-character text complaints? Will there be some Twitter equivalent of the auto-reply? …Your tweet is very important to us…

I like to know who’s behind a Twitter avatar. If a group or company maintains a Twitter account, and I follow that organization and tweet in their direction, I like to know who precisely is listening. It might seem like a small thing, especially when logging a customer service complaint. But I had an incident where I tweeted one person — at least I thought I did — in a group and someone else picked up the tweet and it got me in kind of a jam.

On the personal side of things, I’ve noticed that when people I follow change their avatar from something abstract to a picture of themselves (even a cartoon rendering, in some cases) their tweets instantly get more compelling.

And really, it doesn’t feel terribly social or networky if I’m following a logo as opposed to a real, live human being.

Then again, paint me a hypocrite — I have a Twitter account for LaunchPad Coworking, just in case. But I maintain this to hang onto the name and to have a spot if someone comes looking for the company. Day to day though, I tweet as me, not my company.

Susan Price, my marketing guru, tells me There is no wrong way to use Twitter. She’s right, of course. This is something I love about Susan — the way she can kindly call me on my own stubbornness. And maybe, once we’re open, I’ll be tweeting from LPC all the time. It’s cool to watch how others are using Twitter for branding — less personal than an individual presence but, for now anyway, a lot more personal than a billboard.

And I confess I’ve even tweeted my own questions for corporations more than once, and had answers magically manifest. I was wishing for the capability to do a certain something on Evernote. So I tweeted it out there. Minutes later I got a tweet back saying, “You can do that now, here’s how.” It was great and in that moment, I didn’t care who was behind it — man, monkey or machine. I was heard. It rocked.

Another time @NPRpolitics tweeted the super-delegate count of Obama and Clinton. Clinton was ahead by .5 delegates. .5? I replied with “how can someone have half a delegate?” 2 minutes later I got the response — “The 1/2 comes from Theresa Morelli who lives in Milan. She is counted in DEMS Abroad. They split their del votes.” I couldn’t have found that answer any faster via Google. Very cool.

But can it be sustained? Getting a tweet back ten minutes after a complaint or compliment or request is just not a scalable model. I know — I used to do customer support. There are real hands behind those fingers twittering back responses. The expectation of getting immediate service as Twitter gets bigger is unrealistic. What happens when companies’ 1000 followers jumps to 20,000 and then to 50,000?

But the upside of the current Twitter flutter of customer service is that this is an entryway for other companies to start participating in the conversation about how social networking is changing the face of marketing and customer service. And it’s a clear reminder: You better watch and listen — people are tweeting about you.

Meanwhile, over on the consumer side, I sure hope folks don’t get spoiled and develop a sense of entitlement over these fast return tweets. If they do, it won’t be long before the squeaky tweeter stops getting the oil.

After interviewing a number of design firms to find just the right team to help us pull together elements to express everything from our logo to our swag to our mission to our excitement at building LaunchPad Coworking, we had the great fortune to connect with Erin Mayes of Em Dash LLC. I caught up with Erin to ask her about the curious world of design.

Before she answered my set of specific questions, Erin offered a little bit of preface to help me understand why it’s tricky trying to capture in words what happens in the world of design.

Erin’s Preface

Whoever said “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture,” was dead on, and that totally applies to talking about design and art. You can’t really ever TALK about things that happen visually. You can only talk AROUND them. In metaphors. Hence the quote. There’s not a verbal language for what you see. Or for the emotional response that goes directly to your brain from something you just saw.

Take the for-instance of the McDonald’s logo. You see it, but you don’t read it. It doesn’t tell you “M.” Yet it signifies all kinds of associations for the person looking at it. If you’re 2 years old and can’t read, it’s the symbol that THAT’s the place you go for treats — sugar-filled yummy lunch, a Playscape and a toy. If you’re me, it’s the symbol of everything that’s wrong with American corporations, the American workforce, yet my stomach is making that “Put a quarter pounder here NOW” feeling that just makes me more conflicted. See what I mean?

So as a designer, you’re dealing with a whole lot of minutiae of perception. And all that minutiae interacts too closely to change the overall perception that there’s no way to make standards — no way to quantify it. Like — you can’t really say blue is a calming color. Because if blue is combined with the big fuzzy monster that is slapping you in the face, the experience is not calming. That’s a pretty bad analogy, but when you start to deal in things like letterforms (which most people don’t think that they notice), that create quick associations in your head subconsciously to you feel one way versus another way — like letterforms that carry a particular cultural baggage in a particular time span (like Papyrus, which is used as the font for every yoga studio and DIY hippie-venture in the last 5 years) — it becomes even harder to quantify how design happens. The only way I can really quantify any success is if the design works. Did people pick up the magazine or product on the shelf? Did they have some sort of emotional connection and read it? Did they want to save it and not throw it away? Was the consumer’s first reaction “Oh cool!”. That’s they only way to really quantify design. And because there are so many factors that make good design, it should not be left to amateurs. HA!

The Interview

Spike Gillespie: Tell me about your business.
Erin Mayes: I started Em Dash LLC a couple of years ago. My recent co-worker is Kate Iltis. We work together very well because we have such a similar view of design — make similar choices, like similar things, have similar backgrounds. Yet, when I’m dumb, she’s smart. And when she’s dumb, I’m smart. It’s a good relationship. Simon Renwick is our designer. His background is in fine art - painting - but he’s spent his career in construction as a contractor. He was looking for a career change, so we did a trial internship to see if he liked it and if he had any potential. Funny thing — his background in construction makes him really good at building complicated designs like magazines, or identity systems.

Spike: What will you be doing for LaunchPad Coworking?
Erin: We’ll be in charge of the space’s graphic system. Their identity system. That means that we are refining the logo that they made at the beginning so it addresses the totality of the space and its personality. The graphic system will work with the architecture to create a really interesting and comfortable space for great ideas to be born.

Spike: What the heck is a graphic system?
Erin: The graphic system for a space is really a big problem to solve. It’s not just coming up with a logo that looks good on a business card. All the bits that come out of or are housed in LaunchPad Coworking need to have a consistent graphic voice, and a consistent personality and hopefully some playfulness. Since it’s not just a business, it’s a cafe, and sort of a social working network, all the different pieces have to play well together, yet be fun and individual on their own. We can’t just slap a logo on cups, on the wall, on the door, and on t-shirts and be done. That’s a missed opportunity where we should be creating an experience.

Spike: How did you get into design?
Erin: My background is in magazine design. I started out as a photojournalism major at UT and took the only design class offered. I really liked it, and started doing it on the side in school to make money. Back then, it was still mostly a paste-up based field, but the Mac had arrived a few years before that class and people were starting to figure out how to use it. I got my first job in design specifically because I knew how to operate a Mac, not for any design skills — I hadn’t even been in that class yet.

I went to Dallas after graduating to work at the Dallas Observer, then off to NYC where I freelanced in the Bloomingdale’s Special Projects department doing packaging and poster, the Village Voice, and briefly at Entertainment Weekly. Then I landed a full-time job at a weekly TV magazine called Total TV and a monthly called the Cable Guide. I left there for Premiere magazine, then Men’s Journal, then to work on redesigning consumer and trade magazines. That firm went through several transitions. At that point, I’d had enough of NY and started thinking about somewhere else to live. That’s when the job at Pentagram in Austin came up, and I moved back to Austin in July 2001. I worked with DJ Stout there and started designing books for the first time, more identity, and plenty of magazines.

Spike: What’s your process?
Erin: I’m always stumped at the beginning of a project. Once I do a lot of research and clean up the office, then I just start putting down things on paper — sketching, playing, whatever. Some dumb thing I do always gets the idea ball rolling if I do enough of it. Then you just have to put in the work (play, actually) and see what works, and what doesn’t. The answers always emerge in that process.