With the economy in a free fall and jobs disappearing faster than the bubbles in a Red Bull, it was a relief to drop in on the third Seed Conference, held June 6 at IIT’s Crown Hall, and get a jolt of high-energy confidence about the future. Hosted by three cutting-edge Chicago-based businesses—Coudal Partners, 37signals, and Segura Inc.—the conference (which is expected to happen three times a year) was targeted at Web, print, and video designers, or any other entrepreneurial soul looking to, as the online promo put it, “take creative ideas and turn them into something SATISFYING & BANKABLE.”
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These Web-ridin’ cowboys of the new business frontier are rebels and loners, dreamers and dropouts. Take Carlos Segura, creator of the digital type foundry T26 and the first American winner in the 53-year history of the Red Dot Grand Prix international design award. He prefers to work alone, hates compromise, and says no to most potential clients because he doesn’t want that “icky” feeling that comes with letting them think they know best. Still, they’re beating down his door. He’s never had to troll for business, he says, and succeeds by thinking beyond what’s requested, seeing what others don’t notice, and laying the truth on his clients even though most of them don’t want to hear it.
Jim Coudal reinvented his eponymous advertising firm after two large clients dumped him in the same week; it’s now a developer of cool products, like the handy little graph paper notebooks attendees got and events like this one. It’s also its own best customer, promoting itself through an elaborate Web site (coudal.com) featuring everything from puzzles to the Museum of Online Museums. Coudal sees the “old model” of work for hire as “outmoded, inequitable, and often stifling.”
“I’m represented by the biggest talent agency in Hollywood, CAA. I just signed a huge, six-figure book deal. I will be paid more for speaking this year than I made five years ago,” he rhapsodizes, adding there’s still time for the rest of us to get on the gravy train. Now, he declares, “is the beginning of the gold rush in personal branding…. Every single person in this room can make so much more money than they can ever imagine, doing what they love.” We just have to put in “a shitload of work” and be patient.
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