“Make something interesting” is a client request we don’t hear often. When Adobe asked it of Kelli Anderson (they wanted a handout for AIGA's annual design event), she decided this was the perfect opportunity to address a quandary that we all encounter from time to time:

Should I take that job? Is the low pay worth the potential glory? Is the high pay worth the ensuing years of professional shame? And so on…

As Anderson states in her blog post about the project, “It’s part paper-wheel-calculator, part infographic, part mood ring, and part logic-exercise to help ‘see the future without all the waiting.’”

The piece has been a runaway success in the design community, partly because it’s gorgeous and partly because it asks and answers four basic project assessment questions with a sense of irony so acute it could be confiscated at the airport.

The wheel’s four questions (which are more like parameters) are:

1. When considering the working conditions, you catch yourself wondering…
2. How much will this work improve things?
3. Is it in your wheelhouse? (Is it a fit for your skillset?)
4. So, what’s the money like? (please answer in song)

Does the wheel tell the future? According to Anderson, absolutely. Any one of 72 unique circumstances will predict whether you’ll be living on noodles, the envy of your old school chums or “siphoning your deferred passions into a side project, which makes you internet-famous.”

When I tried to nab one on the Adobe Illustrator Facebook page where they were giving them away, I was already too late. Until the next production run, you’ll have to settle for Anderson’s abundantly illustrated blog post. Thankfully, she’s loaded it not only with lots of detailed photos, but also a descriptive video and a few historical images of 20th century wheel calculators and other interesting things that spin.

How do you answer the question of whether to take a job? Would Anderson's wheel help you? Let us know in the comments.