Designer Fraud – How to Protect Identity

Yesterday I found out that someone was using my name, to have traffic flow to their website (www.hillaryhooper.co.uk). This young man was posing as a female designer and miss spelling one letter in my name to attract traffic from Google and to attain my clients. He was basically looking to do work under my name, take a security deposit then flee. He also started a “HillaryHooper” twitter account that same day he put up the site (Last Week). He followed a few well known designers along with Forrst and a few other design companies.

After a lot of investigation, the person turned out to be a 19 year old Male from the UK. Not only was he using my name for traffic and clients, he is also doing it with several other companies, for Design and also SEO work. It’s been an eye opening weekend of seeing how someone can take your name, reputation and work and claim it as their own. The guy realized he had been found out, and that I contained proof of several screenshots of evidence pointing to him purchasing hillaryhooper.co.uk along with other strange company names. You can believe this made him quite nervous and I got an email from him today. I have to say it was really disappointing to see someone so desperate to lie to my face. Act like I wasn’t smart and couldn’t see the truth. I am not disclosing his name because I do not want to give him any power or glory in this post. The logistics have been resolved and the site and twitter name were taken down earlier this morning. Thankfully, I still have proof of his behavior via screenshots if I ever get contacted by him again. Thank you to the design community for reporting him as well, along with re-tweeting the situation.

What I really want to tell you, is how to protect yourself from letting this happen to you.
Your work is out on the web naked, for everyone to see. Your name can’t be copy righted or trade marked. You have to protect your identity. There are thousands of people getting screwed over by Black Hat Identity Fraud. Here’s what you can do to prevent it:

Try this flow every 1-2 months. This is a vital house cleaning procedure that you need to do if you have a presence online:
1. Google your name and view every link with your name with it. Go back as far as you can go into the search till things don’t seem to make sense anymore and your name is not relavent in the search.

2. Spell your name wrong in a Google search. Spell your name with an extra letter or change the spelling of one of the letters in your last name. You may need to get creative in the process (Mine was just spelled wrong by an extra “O” at the last name).

3. If you find someone who is using your name for traffic and work, contact them directly. Request to have their domain name and take screen shots of their behavior. Find out where they work and if needed write their company. You can also report Black Hat Identity Fraud to the FBI and Police. You’re probably not the first person they have done this too, so don’t feel bad.

4. Get the design community behind you. It’s good to have friends, people will stand up behind you to back you up.

5. Get it straightened out and move on. Don’t give the person any more power than they deserve. Which is none.

I hope this post has opened your eyes to protect your name and identity online and to also monitor it. If you ever have any issues with a case like mine or one similar, please don’t hesitate to email me.

Special thanks to: Craig Reville, for helping out with the screen shots and investigation | Kyee, for spotting the guy in the first place.

Wireframing Life

I fill a large sketchbook front and back in about a month. Before I execute anything in Photoshop or Illustrator, I am shaping my ideas the old fashioned way. But it’s not an old fashioned way of the creative process. Going through some of my sketch books in 2011 I see how much I have grown in my user experience. Each wireframe becomes more methodical and clear. I really dedicated myself to UX last year. It was the one area I really wanted to excel in and I believe I have become a lot closer to it now that I am in 2012. Sketching played a huge role in fulfilling that goal. Sketching allows me to pour out all of my creative ideas into pages I can look back on. Working with pixels and points is a great medium, but it’s not much of a tangible medium. Unless, it’s on a computer or device but even then, there is nothing like holding a sketch book in my hands.

The same goes for sketching out your career and life goals as a designer. Or whoever you may be or want to be.
Writing down your goals maybe even in your sketch book on the first page will help you accomplish those tangible dreams.

Drawing your own goals and making a wireframe for your career is pivotal.

We design user experiences everyday, for other people. Yet I wonder if a lot of us have actually sat down and made their own wireframe for their life and career. It’s always great to have a map of where you are now and where you want to be. I am the type of the person who has goals and ambitions and then a little wiggle room for whatever else life may bring.

I’ve come to realize that if you dedicate yourself to one area of design you will master it. It just takes time for all the pieces to come into place. Last year it was UX and this year it will still be UX but I want my visual skills to become even better. I want to broaden my style and be able to make even more colorful illustrations and products that have life in them. So this new goal will go into my Goal Wireframe. Where I will go back often to make sure I am still on track and that the experience is where I want it to be.

I’ve come to a place in my life that anything is possible, that I can be whoever I want to be with a lot of effort time and work. But in the end it’s all worth it, because I just need to apply who I truly am.

And it all starts with a little sketch book…

What are your thoughts on this and how would you achieve making goals in your life?

Designing With Challenge

One of the best projects you can take is one that you feel like you cannot complete. That overwhelming, complicated and aesthetically hard to please design. But these projects are only for the brave of heart. Although in the end, can be the most rewarding.

Being challenged in your everyday design life should be taken as gold. Because as you become challenged and pushed to your limits your talent expands and you become more valuable. I believe that as long as someone has a vision for a product, design or idea that they can make it happen.

Designers should never look at a challenge as a setback, but as an opportunity to grow. If you clearly believe that a project is too far out of your expertise be honest with yourself. If you believe it is something you can learn during the process in a specific amount of time, then shoot for it. But with everything, weigh it and find if it is truly worth it for you.

Try not to overwhelm yourself with a challenge. Many times I have gotten so overwhelmed and worked up about a project that I couldn’t focus on anything. Frustration can be such a weapon against us. But going for a walk, clearing the mind, or talking to another designer about your frustrations can really help.

Taking breaks is important too. Give your mind time to rest and process information. Sometimes when you keep working on a design and move things around, everything starts to look the same. Do your best, stand back, and look at your work. Think to yourself on how it can be improved, and if not, then its time for a break. Or maybe you’ve come to a stopping point.

Being under challenged can just be as dangerous if not worse than getting frustrated with a current design challenge. When a designer becomes under challenged, they seem to lose interest in their work, don’t feel used, appreciated, or seen. They know they have talent yet their project isn’t pulling that out. Creative people can feel those creative streams flowing out of them. It’s like water flowing from a steam. But when the challenge becomes stale the water starts to trickle and designers start to feel uninterested in their projects. It’s a dangerous predicament and harder to get out of than being over challenged.

If you’re caught in a drought with design, take breaks, take it by stride and just finish it and move on. It may not be your best work, but put all that you can into it. There will be many projects that you may not want to put in your portfolio. Or even recall again. With every project, hides a lesson and a new learning process.

To avoid becoming stale in your design projects, choose ones that challenge you, are interesting and can see yourself growing. If it’s something you’ve done before, or over and over again, move away from it. If you have too, use those redundant projects as quick ones that don’t take up a lot of your time and you can move away from quickly.

Never shy away from a challenge but stand boldly at the gate. Requesting and wanting a challenge in your everyday work is one of the best things you can do for yourself and for your career. People don’t become great by sitting back and watching people pass them by. They become great by taking challenges that shape them into greatness.