Greater>Than Clothing

Some of our loyal readers have complimented our new header images. Thanks for the kind words. I’m happy with the way they look, too. The previous header came with the blog theme (which is called Freshy), and I’m glad to have put more of a personal stamp on it.

You may also have noticed that the header isn’t always the same when you visit. I got the randomization script from Photo Matt, which is the blog written by Matthew Mullenweg, who is the founding developer of Wordpress, which is the self-publishing software running this site and many thousands of others. You may have to hold shift when you hit refresh in Firefox to get a new picture to show up (Firefox caches pages). If you’re not using Firefox, you should be!

I took each of the pictures currently featured*, some of them on a recent trip to Chicago. Here’s another:

In the open spirit of this project, I’d love to put some pics from the community up there. So send in your 780 x 95px jpegs!

While I’m in the middle of this navel gazing meta-post, I’d like to give a shout-out to the creator of the forums plugin that allowed me to launch the forum feature on this site in a single day, Andy Staines. I had a slight problem with the installation, which I posted to his forum, and he figured it out for me personally. He provided amazing support for his (free!) software. Andy, you rock.

*Update: Ryan has added some of his pictures to the mix, from his trip to Hawaii. The gorgeous sunset and the sea urchin shot are his. We want you to get credit for your images if you send them in, so be sure to mark them as yours in some way before sending.

We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of community forums on Greater>Than Clothing!

This is another incremental step toward our goal of creating a seamless, one-stop site where members of our community can talk to us and to each other. I invite you to check them out and let us know what you think. I’m particularly interested in any comments you might have about the forum’s structure. Are there sections you’d like us to add?

Let’s see some chatter out there!

I’ve been spending a lot of space in this blog talking about theory, and while that is certainly part of the plan, another key goal is to chronicle how we get this company truly up and running. So, it’s time to check in from an operations/development perspective.

A while back, Ryan and I sat down and worked out a draft budget for phase one of the project. Essentially we were trying to figure out how much cash we would need to design, print and sell our first 300 shirts*. The good news was that we both felt the assumptions were reasonable, and having a budget made the whole enterprise seem more substantial. At our day jobs, the motivation comes from outside, but with Greater>Than we have to find ways to keep ourselves motivated. Simply having a plan goes a long way, even (maybe especially) when it illuminates the obstacles in our path. In this case, that’s exactly what it did, as we simply didn’t have the money our budget called for. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the many fun things about starting your own company is that you get to make up a title for yourself. Publicly traded companies officially have to have CEOs, etc., but private companies like Greater>Than have no such constraint. The founders of Cranium Inc., for example - Richard Tait and Whit Alexander - call themselves the Grand Poo-bah and Chief Noodler, respectively.

I’ve been searching for something a little more descriptive of what I want my role in the company to be. Ideally, it should be fairly general, as I plan to have a presence in many of our operations, even long term. But, although I am and will continue to be an owner/leader, I never want to position myself as a “boss”. I’m not “bossy”.

So here’s my draft title: Chief Creativity Enabler

I like it because it clearly shows that our priority as a company is to give people an outlet to do the sort of work that they want to do. We are a platform for creative work, and my job as a leader is to make sure that the platform is as functional as possible. Of course, not all of my work is going to contribute directly to enabling the creativity of other people. I’m thinking here about development or sales activities, the more “businessy” stuff I have to do to make the company successful. I think the title covers this side of my role as well, reminding everyone (including especially myself) that building the business is necessary because it will allow us to enable more creativity, and not the other way around.

What do you think? Over-explained and hopelessly cheesy? Heavy handed compared to your more succinct idea? The perfect title for such a visionary genius? Let me know (or let me have it) in the comments.

Update: After some great discussion in the comments (thanks Sarah!), I’ve decided to revise my title. I think the revision still encompass the points above, but it adds an extra dimension. Here it is: Chief Creativity Catalyst. A catalyst assists in a chemical reaction by speeding it up or making it happen more efficiently, but the reaction can happen without it. I think that’s an apt metaphor, since one of our base assumptions is that there is a lot of latent creativity out there. We want to help people discover or re-awaken their creative sides, but the call to create is innate.

When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.

–R. Buckminster Fuller

I came across this quote in a great article in GOOD Magazine* (which, incidentally, was founded and is published by a friend of mine from college). I thought this was relevant for Greater>Than because the article makes the point that Fuller was, above all, a designer. I love this quote because it reminds us that the “form follows function” idea doesn’t mean that we should settle for ugly, “functional” objects.

As Donald Norman argued in Emotional Design, attractive things actually work better. That book is very highly recommended, and I found that particular point both surprising and convincing. It’s not much of a slight to Norman to note that Fuller beat him to the punch by about 75 years, as most people are much farther behind.

For those of you not familiar with Fuller, here is a quick list of some of his notable achievements:

• The Geodesic dome
• The Dymaxion Car
• The concept of “Spaceship Earth“
• The Fuller Projection, a “one island in one ocean” map, which happens to be my favorite projection (I even have the poster):

Imagine living your life as an open-ended exploration for the betterment of mankind, with beauty as your compass.

*Look in the sidebar on the right for links to the rest of the Buckminster Fuller feature. The rest of the magazine is worth checking out as well. Its purpose is to chronicle and support the movement toward smart, sustainable business and life, a movement to which Greater>Than is similarly committed.