Eric Karjaluoto: Challenging Perfection

Eric is the lead creative at smashLAB, an interaction design firm in Vancouver. Eric has also directed a number of interactive projects for start-ups and national organizations including Design Can Change, an effort to unite designers to address climate change. Behance caught up with Eric to discuss the creative's dilemma of perfection vs. profit and imposing structure in the creative realm.

Creative teams go out of business when they strive for perfection over profit. As Eric sees it, "Creative time is difficult to manage and structure." To stay productive (and stay in business), Eric's team grounds creativity with productivity and economic discipline. Eric goes on to explain that such discipline is a common challenge for designers, "We all want to do our best, but at what point do we say that a project is complete? If one feels that a project with a fixed budget needs more time, how much time is reasonable to write-off in order to bring it to personal standards?"

"Early in a studio's operation it's easy to justify extra effort as an investment in one's company. That being said, as experience is gained and studio owners become responsible for people other than themselves, billable efficiency becomes increasingly important. You just can't "finance" every project you want to make perfect."

So, we asked Eric how he manages the struggle between perfection and sound business. Eric recalls that "it all came down to asking ourselves where we were willing to bend. We weren't willing to compromise the quality of our work, nor were we comfortable losing money on projects. Finally we chose to limit our offering. After years of being a small, full-service studio, we picked what we were best at and are now concentrating solely on that. Focusing our firm...allows us to streamline processes, while avoiding "cookie-cutter" solutions."

Eric questions the conventional wisdom on the "unstructured creative environment." He recalls, "early in our firm's operation I believed that we'd work better with less structure. I now believe this to be creative folklore. Yes, some designers work well in very loose and possibly chaotic environments. We, however, have found quite the opposite. Good planning, clear communication, and a deliberate process help us concentrate on the needs of the project, instead of hunting for an email that was lost due to poor organization."

Motivation is key to Eric's productivity. He claims he would "rather be involved in a project than doing almost anything else. It's a bit of a rush to build something, and I like that energy." With Design Can Change, Eric wanted to connect designers to do something good. Within smashLAB, Eric is now focused on improving the management of the company. As he explains, "it's not what most would label as a "creative" project, but in my mind it is just that. It's forcing me to embrace ideas outside of my comfort-zone and I'm learning a great deal."

Eric's advice for the creative professional community? "...Find good people to work with. I've gained a great deal by partnering with people who share my values, but think differently than I do. My business partner is a developer. His work is quite different from mine and as a result I've learned much from him. I've found the same with my wife, Amea. She and I have very different ideas about things, but share common values. Both of these relationships make my life rewarding and enjoyable."

More on Eric Karjaluoto

Firm: smashLAB

Blog: Ideas On Ideas

Personal Site: Eric Karjaluoto

(and be sure to check out Eric's Gallery with this article, above)