Design Thought Leader

The design process is much like the progression of a story in how it begins with the materials and a few undeveloped ideas. As the materials are crafted to fit the ideas everything is more defined and the design becomes stronger. Narrowing down and combining ideas help to create a bigger picture and a more developed design.

When coming up with a design or a piece of writing one must take into consideration the many different views that the observers and readers will have. To help with the design and writing processes there are guidelines that can be followed to clean up the clutter of the initial group of ideas to better refine and polish the work.

As many designers learn, ‘commodity, firmness, and delight’ are key terms that aid in the formation of a design and can also be accommodated for the writing process. Commodity is the utility of the design or writing. This is a design’s use as a bus shelter or the moral of a children’s story. Firmness is the structure which represents how well a design holds though the elements and how a story flows from scene to scene. And delight is how pleasing the works are to the audience through the eyes and through the mind.

Hailey Allen
Writer, Associated Content

If the data allows it, we like to break down information into a graphical hierarchy similar to poster designs: a larger motive or trend is visible at first glance, and more detailed information becomes clear on closer inspection. Furthermore, the design should reflect some of its content. The data does not always allow for this: many times a simple bar graph is best. That said, a design cannot exceed its content: bad data sets lead to bad graphics, however simple or conventional the design is.

Joris Maltha and Daniel Gross
Designers and Founders, Catalogtree

Design can simplify the mission of an organization or the purpose of a product. As a result, design helps us engage.

I had this in mind a few weeks ago during a meeting with the leaders of a new nonprofit organization. They were asking me for feedback on their mission statement and the way their website was organized. While their purpose was noble, I was struggling to really understand what they did. To put it bluntly, their design was horrid.

It saddened me to hear that they “didn’t have time to focus on design” because they were a nonprofit. Since when was design just a luxury? Some new nonprofit organizations have proven that design can be THE core strategy for success. The best example that comes to mind is Charity Water. As one of the only nonprofits I know that employs a full-time designer as a senior leader of the organization, Charity Water has raised a tremendous amount of money and attention for a very worthy cause: clean water where it is needed most. I encourage you to take a few minutes to review Charity Water’s website, and you will see what I mean. While there are many nonprofit organizations with a similar cause, Charity Water has a competitive advantage: design. …

Whether you admit it or not, your product or service will only succeed if people are engaged by it. Design is a means to that engagement. Reconsider your emphasis and investment in great design as a core part of your business.

Scott Belsky
Founder, Behance

Design is a pendulum that swings from then to now as designers look for inspiration in old forms and new ideas, alternately embracing and rejecting the past.

William Bostwick
Writer of Art, Design and Architecture

As Creative Directors our philosophy is to [give] designers as much freedom as possible, and only intervening when they go off track. Yet it is only possible to adopt a hands-off approach when you work with good people. If you employ second-rate designers then you have to intervene all the time.

It’s the same with the authors or the external designers we decide to work with on books. Editing is like being a Creative Director, it only works if your intervention is wanted and respected, so we’d only want to work with people who felt that our editorial or design interventions were welcome. If we were consonantly at war with an author or a designer then it probably wouldn’t be the sort of book we’d want to publish—although a bit of creative friction can often help reach a deeper and richer outcome.

Adrian Shaughnessy and Tony Brook
Founders, Unit Editions