Designer: We designers need to loosen up.
Me: Yeah? How so?
Designer: We are taking our design work too seriously. Our clients just take our designs at face value.
Me (In a philosophical voice): This organic form reflects the beauty of natural elements that are found in plants and nature…
Designer (In an also philosophical voice): Yes this forward “chin” tilt represents a strong iconic aesthetic that creates a product that reflects pride in ownership blah blah…
Our clients don’t really care as it is not as important to them.Me: This is one of the “Gaps” in the thinking between Design and Business eh?
News flash people.
The only people who really care how about how a design is meant to look are designers. The rest of the world just considers our designs at face value. In other words, if its crap no amount of justification is going to cut it. Philosophical talk is just mental masturbation.
Don’t blame us designers; it is just how we are wired. All our lives, we are taught to justify our designs and design work. What they did not tell us was justifying designs was really meant for designers to learn how we came about creating said designs. It was about structuring and giving meaning to design, not for defending it.
Therefore when we (designers) look at designs, we automatically decode them to “see” and appreciate the meaning, inspiration and intelligence behind the form or solution. Unfortunately, the rest of the world just takes it straight up, and at the end of the day, it really comes down to whether people intuitively “get it” or not.
So the next time our clients don’t seem to “get” our designs, take a step back and consider our work objectively and at face level and see how it goes?
Original Post: http://www.designsojourn.com/bridging-the-language-gap-who-cares-about-my-design/
