Design is not safe. Or at least it shouldn’t be. I find myself taking the safe road with design all too often. Unfortunately, I’ve got a lot of company. I spent most of my morning looking through portfolios and websites of very well designed but very safe work. So little of the work done these days actually means something (especially my own). Why is this? Fear? Fear of failure; fear of not being accepted; fear of not living up to your expectations; fear of whatever. Restraints? Your restraints, your agency’s, your client’s, your budget, your time, your whatever restraints. Don’t understand? Don’t understand your project, your client or yourself.

I just finished reading C.S. Lewis’ book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Aslan, the lion-king of Narnia, returns to reclaim his kingdom from the evil White Witch. The little girl in the story, Lucy, asks a friend, “Is Aslan safe?” to which the friend replies, “Safe? No, he’s not safe…but he is good.” This is how I think design should be, not safe but good. I don’t mean “good” as in well designed, that goes without saying. I mean for the Good. As Christians in design we should be the ones who have the most freedom to take risks without fear. After all, we are free to be sinners, to mess up and still be accepted. Sadly, we don’t. This turns our design work into ...... Keep reading

There’s a fascinating discussion going on at SpeakUp sparked by the question, “What would you like to be remembered by?” I think this question goes not only to the heart and soul of design, but the designer as well. Some 46 posts later, here are some honest and revealing excerpts from designers at SpeakUp:

Daniel G. | “For making a positive difference in this world. If that is through design — great! If it’s through some other endeavor such as being a good parent or a volunteer to some area of need — great! But to leave no positive legacy…well, that would be a shame. And to borrow a phrase from a recent movie, if I screw up the parenting-thing, the other stuff doesn’t mean much.”

Art C. | “In truth, it’s noble to attain professional goals and receive recognition for the hard work. But when (and if) I start a family, I can easily say that being remembered as a good father is a priority.”

S.S. | “He always did the right thing.”

Jo | “Sometimes it’s hard to swallow that all the work I put into design, art, or whatever other pursuit I have will one day be remembered by no one.”Keep reading

My family and I were reading one of C.S. Lewis’ books from the Narnia Trilogy when it hit me–what happened to my imagination? I mean, I know I had one at one time…I think. A quick glance across the landscape of design and you’ll find a lot of creativity, but closer examination reveals the same patterns and movements used time and time again with little or no imagination. Most of us are pursuing a style (usually at the behest of a client that insists on “make it like ____”) that we’ve seen somewhere else, but very few are coming up with truly creative ideas. Why is this? I have some suspicions.

I believe one of the culprits that holds our God given imaginations prisoner is our schooling. Let me give some an examples to illustrate the point. Is daydreaming in the classroom encouraged by teachers? No. Yet the very act of daydreaming is an exercise of the imagination and an opportunity to develop creatively. How about free time? Is there a lot of that during the school day for our children? No. They are herded around from room to room all day like rats in a maze with barely any time to do real thinking. Free time is a pre-requisite for creative thought to grow. It is now a well documented fact that our schools are based on the Prussian military model of learning. The early Prussian state wanted to produce soldiers for their army who would follow orders at all costs without thinking. So, they developed a compulso...... Keep reading

I was cruising the Internet the other day and ran into this unique company (see pics above) called Gate 3 WorkClub. Their vision is to create a new kind of work community that “blends the comforts of home with the professionalism of an office and the congeniality of a social club.” Their focus is on creating a shared community for the “creative class” that is “worlds apart from traditional, centralized corporate environments.” Interesting. How are they doing that? Practically, they’ve built a very nice shared space that provides all types of services for those who work from home, small businesses or are geographically separated from their business partners. This isn’t a new concept. Kinkos has tried to create many similar services for small business. Chambers of Commerce have also established incubators for new businesses. I think what makes Gate 3 different is the totality of the concept. They’re not just creating a launching pad for small or new businesses, they’re advocating a whole new type of work-life for creative ...... Keep reading

No, that’s not a typo. I’ve just finished reading through Kenneth Cole’s monogram, Footnotes. I must say that he’s done more with fashion design than I ever thought possible. You can tell from the subtitle, “What you stand for is more important than what you stand in,” that he’s not going to be talking about the latest Spring colors or how to select a trendy wardrobe. This book is about substance over style. He recounts the company’s entrepreneurial beginnings and examines the “unlikely marriage between social responsibility and the business of fashion.” From the first chapter, “Why Fashion Is Not Important,” to the end of the book, Cole offers some interesting insights on the connection between design and society. Could any type of design work appear more fleeting? Cole admits it. “I spend a major part of my waking hours making things that no one needs. After all, fashion is just clothes, just shoes—fashion doesn’t really change the world.” And he expresses so...... Keep reading

If you’re like me, you’ve probably noticed a trend toward realism in design. By this I mean design that mimics or simulates actual, physical objects. Let me give you some examples (see above): Toyota’s dinosaur footprint ad, Toyota’s family photo ad, and Eddie Bauer’s sale price tag. If you wanted to design something like this in the past, you’d either have to draw it by hand or physically create the elements and photograph them. Now everything’s done in Photoshop. Looks real, but none of these ads physically existed in the real world.

Recently though, I’ve noticed a counter current to virtual realism. I call it physical realism. Designers are again creating works that exist in the real world. The trendsetter in this retro wave of physical design is Stefan Sagmeister. He’s incorp...... Keep reading