Apart from the fact that it’s a good article on the above topic, it has some other non-design related parts that rhyme well with the way I work/aside works. For example:
In fact I believe that the original idea of one person with one profession is about to diminish in this world. The Internet is just the place where it happens first, because the Internet is Zeitgeist pure, it is the mirror of our times. The Internet is filled with what humans want, do or desire to have. It is the peak of expression for our civilization, independently if you feel comfortable with that idea or not.
The article’s been written by Henning von Vogelsang on the Core blog.
Some more interesting excerpts:
Because design in its purest form is simply the art of making something work.
Decorative elements in design have a purpose too: To give you a certain feeling about the spirit of the thing you are using. Be it a car, a building, a picture frame, file folder, headset or the food on your plate. A decorative element has the purpose of completing the image, of expressing the values you see in this matter.
Beauty is a result of good design. But if you beauty a goal, you put its surface in focus. You can easily lose track of what is important. Suddenly, your choices for color, typography, any graphic element you used in your design become irrelevant and replaceable. Which is the main reason why your client should never be able to say “Can you show it in green?”
The one below is brilliant!
Clients asking for variation happens out of natural reasons. Clients are insecure about their choices, just like you are insecure about which is the best mountain bike you can get for money. You want to do some research before you settle for a solution, and so does your client. In order to make him understand why you chose red over green, you will have to guide him through your thought-process. You will have to show him what made you think red was better than green and have him agree with you. Following this pattern, selling your work will become a lot easier.
But then so is the article! The amount of international talent now accessible to everyone to learn from never ceases to amaze me. What amazes me is the so few number of people willing to learn.
1 comment
Right on Naina.
Great post.
A few further thoughts on what all this touched for me this sunny Sunday AM:
(my comments perceeded by “===>”)
” In fact I believe that the original idea of one person with one profession is about to diminish in this world.”
===> No question. Never in the history of the human race have the skills and capacity for effective cooperation been at such a premium and therefore been so rewarded as well. The challenge, as our development team approaches it, is to become effective “bridge builders”. We must find ways to help connect the inter-personal/inter-professional symbiosis that we see flowering across the wwweb to the non-digital daily lives of that vast majority of Earth’s people; most of whom are not, let us not forget, online. An awesome and exciting challenge to say the least, eh?
“Because design in its purest form is simply the art of making something work.”
===> Right. Add to that simple, but powerful, observation the weight of our current moment in history: the collective “something” that we must all have a hand in making “work” now is nothing short of planetary/humanity-wide survival itself. This world-wide “project” (helping preserve our ecology and heal humanity) is calling designers to manifest excellence in:
– creative thinking and intelligent design
– effective inter-organizational/professional collaboration
– balancing our personal for-profit needs with our collective non-profit imperatives
-results-centered, independence supportive project management
“Decorative elements in design have a purpose too: To give you a certain feeling about the spirit of the thing you are using. – ….has the purpose of completing the image, of expressing the values you see in this matter. ”
===> Indeed. This principal is as true in its lightest applications (eg: the making of something merely more pleasant/fun/satisfying to look at) as it is in its most critical applications (eg: weather someone will be touched enough by the meaning of the communication’s design to make the decision to take action.
I feel this capacity for the “decorative” to express the “values” we are trying to convey, begs the conscious designer to take a stand for integrity in wielding the power of our craft. There is a vast spectrum of cascading effects resulting from the “values” (or lack of) driving the work/projects/clients we take on and serve. While i wouldn’t presume to play judge here, I do find it a worthy topic of consideration to note that good design in service of a “bad” (e.g. environmentally unsustainable, human rights marginalizing, merely greed-driven, etc…) product, service or event is almost nearly as tragic as poor design in service of what is inherently “good” (e.g. healthy, sustainable, empowering…). Examples? (email me. i dont want to either upset my good mood or transform Naina’s design blog into a social-action diatribe) ;)).
To “out” my self a bit more here so as to better bring my point home: I’m the managing director of a newly forming humanitarian/ecological aid NGO called ‘EquiLife International’. After decades managing communication design projects for a wide variety of human healthcare and related social-service enterprises (…and after painstaking review of hundreds of design portfolios in search of the right fit for our fledgling org), I have both the professional trained as well personally honed design aesthetics to applaud Naina’s style. Her way of balancing the “decorative” with the detail, “the music with the message”, in her compelling, fresh and very “now” approach to graphic design is alive.
Nowhere is it more true than in our group’s communication design challenges (daring to call people’s attention to the challenges facing our planet and what people can do to help), that you either win or loose the battle for capturing people’s attention (or “minds” and therefore then their “hearts”) in the first few SECONDS of how you APPEAR to them visually. Communication design is therefore, really, everything until enough trust and positive mutual exchange of value has occurred to allow an actual relationship to build and take this emotional burden off of graphic design. Its therefore with great enthusiasm that i convey just how delighted and inspired our development team is at the recent addition of Aside Design Studio’s talent, to direct Creative & Communications related projects here at EquiLife.
“What amazes me is the so few number of people willing to learn.”
===> Lest we loose hope fellow designers, let us transform our (often justified) exasperation into a fire of creativity for ever more impactful, creative, penetrating design. Your cool post today Naina closes with a feeling i was having one morning (i’m guilty of reading TOO much world news sometimes) and so i fired up Quark (or was it InDesign…hehe) and brought together a picture from one of EquiLife’s new “Photographers for Peace” (http://www.flickr.com/people/equipix/) and some inspiration from another woman who, like you, flies high; Amelia Earhart. I’ll close with this example of “organizational development and design as means of combating apathy in people for learning and making a difference” (a mouthful, i know but its Sunday and I’m feeling jazzed by reading/responding to your post).
Cheers all!
:))
-equidave
PS: in case this blogging/ comments tool does not support live linking, here’s the static URL: http://static.flickr.com/51/187281055_f07eac2339.jpg
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