In the video above Ken Robinson explains how schools kill creativity and how students don’t find their true passion until school is over.

How can we create an education system that empowers students and encourages them to embrace creativity and discover their true passion in life? Ken Robinson may have the answer.

In the Spring of 2009 I came up with the idea to design the packaging for a fragrance with intentions on presenting it to LeBron James. After seeing the success of other celebrity fragrances such as “I am King” by Sean John  and “99″ by Rocawear I thought it would be a great idea if LeBron James had a fragrance of his own due to not only his celebrity status but also his relationship with Nike. It seems like every season they create a new popular marketing campaign in order to help build the LeBron brand in order to sell more merchandise and continue to thrive as the greatest shoe company ever, and up to this point its working (I’m wearing a limited edition of the Lebron 6s as I write this).

After a few false starts I finally decided on the name “Chosen” after remembering about the SI magazine cover which dubbed him “The Chosen One”, plus the “Chosen 1″ tattoo on his back.  Immediately after deciding on the name I already started to toss around ideas for the marketing campaign which would fit perfectly with Nike and the LeBron brand. With the name chosen and ideas for the campaign in my mind it was time to actually design the packaging.

During the design process everything about LeBron’s lifestyle was taken into consideration, everything from the car he drives to the hardwood courts on which he made a name for himself. After finding inspiration from LeBron’s lifestyle I made a few thumbnail sketches to get the creativity going. I eventually came up with the finished product, only thing missing was LeBron and the scent.

In the middle of the design process I came across the Latin saying “Multi sunt vocati, pauci vero Electi” which translates to “Many are called, Few are chosen.” That’s it! I though to myself, the perfect slogan to go along with the product and marketing campaign. This reminded me of how Nike developed a successful marketing campaign around one word “Witness” along with the slogan “We are all witnesses.” The same thing could be done with the word “Chosen” along with the slogan “Many are called, few are Chosen.”

So after designing the packaging and having a solid idea for the marketing plan in place I put together a booklet to present the idea to LeBron and anyone involved with his brand. For months I did everything I could think of to try and get this idea into LeBron’s hands or ears. I called a couple people I knew who associated with LeBron but I never heard back from them. A few other people got a glimpse of the idea, got excited and said that they would give me the contact info I needed but I never got it. A few more months pass with still no leads, on top of that I had a major computer crash almost losing everything (I backed everything up days before the crash), not to mention the problems I ran into getting the presentation booklets printed in such a small quantity months before.

Its now May 2010 and the NBA announces that LeBron is MVP for the second straight year. This was a breakthrough moment because I knew he would accept his award at a press conference close to home and I had to be there. I attended the press conference with booklets in hand ready to pass them along to anyone who could pass them to LeBron. I was even interviewed by news Channel 5 about the idea (the footage never aired.) I eventually made my way down near the podium and was able to explain the idea to a business associate close to LeBron who shook my hand and took a few booklets. That’s it. I got as close as I possibly could to LeBron and I left the venue in high spirits.

To this day I haven’t heard a word from LeBron or his business associate I met that day. Who knows if LeBron actually received the booklets, its a mystery to me. But none of that matters. What matters is that I did it. In the beginning I had doubts as to how I would even design it knowing nothing about the fragrance industry let alone reaching LeBron. Even though “Chosen” cologne is not sitting on the shelves I learned a lot from this whole experience. One on the main things I learned is that if you are going to spend any significant amount of time on an idea you better make sure it has multiple outcomes. If the only outcome I saw of this idea was to develop a fragrance with Lebron then it would be a complete failure. This idea has many outcomes other than my goal. For one I expanded my design abilities into package design along with 3D modeling. I now have a great quality project to use in my portfolio with a story to go along with it, which could lead to tons of opportunities as a freelance designer. As a matter of fact, it already has.

To see the actual presentation booklets LeBron saw or didn’t see you can download the PDF chosenFragrance.pdf 2

The answer is there are none. why?

There is only two type of people who make it onto the Forbes list: people who have their own business and people who inherited money from people who had their own business. So that really breaks down to one type of person: The Business owner. Lets use the freelance graphic designer as an example.

As a freelance designer you’re in the business of providing effective design solutions to clients in need of your services. This might include identity design (logos), print design (business cards, stationary, flyers, t-shirts, etc.), package design, web design, etc. Lets say you are in high demand and have tons of clients, so many that you can’t even design for all of them and due to high demand you even raise your rates. Its a fact that more money changes hands for services than for any other purpose but even being the most in demand designer with the highest rates, that alone isn’t enough to make one rich or wealthy.

This is the case because a freelance graphic designer working alone has no leverage. Individuals and companies become wealthy by having people and money work for them to earn even more money in less time.

So now the question becomes how does a freelance graphic designer gain leverage?
This answer depends on what areas of design you focus on the most. If you’re a web designer you could build themes for different online platforms that need them such as wordpress, shopify or bigcartel ( just to name a few) and sell them through a website of your own. Also instead of just turning down all those extra clients you can refer them to other freelancers and charge them a finders fee or whatever you come up with.

To take this a step further you can become what I like to call a design entrepreneur. A design entrepreneur is someone who turns his or her creative and innovative ideas into products and takes them to market (more details on this later).

In conclusion, in order to become wealthy as a designer you must become a business owner as well. The business you choose is up to you but just remember, there’s only one type of person on the Forbes list: The business owner.

The blog is finally here. Business + Design = Newfound Design by Corey Scott, Design Entrepreneur.