Every day, we’re surrounded by brilliant design: from industrial, to graphic, to architectural, to the personal. We all make decisions based on design impressions every day, from simple subway signage that makes order out of the chaos of the rush hour to the elegance of the new Apple watch interface. Apple has elevated design for decades, and recently anointed Jony Ive, the brilliant industrial designer and user interface guru, the title of Chief Design Officer. Jony Ive is behind creating the custom designed and ultra scalable fun font for the new Apple watch that is getting rave reviews like a Hollywood blockbuster!
So we wonder out loud, Why don’t we have more chief design officers?
As creative director at FLIRT, it’s often easy to appreciate design aesthetics. It’s my job. But for our clients, that job is often not on the front burner. We’re not talking about the simplistic execution of brand standards, we’re talking about the visualization of complex ideas and human emotions . . . design with a purpose.
Our collective job at FLIRT is to educate and empower our clients to understand the value of good solid design and know it when they see it. Our charge is to share the design tenets with our clients in order to enable them to make smart design decisions among peers and coworkers, and also with us as strategic partners.
Hillman Curits put it best . . . “The more involved and respected a client feels, the more secure they’ll feel with your work and the less they will feel the need to watch your every move, thus giving you more freedom as a designer.”
In many cases an average design can transform into a great design with just a little more discovery, one more question or just one more revision. It is often said that if you are digging a hole in the wrong place, digging it deeper isn’t going to help. At FLIRT we roam, we keep moving and keep discovering, and we dig many holes until we strike gold.
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Great Design isn’t expensive but it is expressive.
- Great Design is often simple, clean and at times seems so damn obvious.
- Great Design can and should have limits! Restrictions become a built in editor.
- Great Design lives by one law, the law of Simplicity.
- Don’t let technology and speed rush the process. These are just tools. Use them wisely.
- Great Design is crafted by all teams digging everywhere at once, searching for inspiring treasure.
- Great Design borrows graphic artifacts from the past. Nothing more inspiring than the Disney logo!
- Great Design optimizes the viewer’s perception and the viewer’s experience.
- Great Design is iconic and unifies and breaks down our differences.
- Great Design elevates our aesthetics and the entire environment, creating an atmosphere everyone wants to be part of.
- Great Design is not an opinion or guess, it’s a push and a shove. It’s a constant check and balance of insight and instincts.
- Great Design inspires and adds dimension and meaning to our existence.
- Great Design is always worth the effort!
Every client, product and person has something to say. Design is a powerful way to express it to others. Smart, consistent and effective design ensures that these messages are put forth with intention and purpose. Design extends into each and every detail, and each and every detail can indeed be designed.