Design Sojourn

Day 3 continues with a number of equally interesting presentations. Unfortunately I did not get an opportunity to sit through all the presentations as I had to take a break from the congress for some work related activities. However I will share what I manage to note down.

William Halal presented his methodology from his tech forecasting activities and shares a number of interesting predictions. At first I was concerned that Thomas Heatherwick was just going do a typical boring portfolio presentation, he instead inspired all with us with his wonderful design philosophy and inspiring design work. Feng Zhu ran an Hollywood inspired, fast paced presentation that show cased not only Entertainment 2050 but his design thinking as well. Again, like the previous summary articles, here are the highlights:

William Halal: Understanding the Technology Revolution
1) No forecasting method is 100% accurate.
2) Knowledge is a key ingredient of innovation, where innovation impacts I.T.
3) The cost of solar power will match the cost of oil in 3-5 years. It will finally then take off in popularity!
4) A.I. replaces routine mental work in about 2021. Humans will recognize what is unique to be human, like the ability to be spiritual etc.
5) Therefore one of the greatest discoveries of our time will be that humans discover that there things that machines cannot do.
6) E-commerce will move to 30% adoption levels about 2015
7) 30% of medical care will be via tele-medicine by 2014.
8) 2020: Sustainability problem will be solved. We will have mastery over life, intelligence and beyond. This will result in a crisis of maturity and a evolution of global consciousness.

Thomas Heatherwick: Now. In general there were not too many quotable quotes but instead a refreshing show of beautiful buildings and structures that made it look like 2050 has arrived.

1) Let’s talk about aesthetics…
2) Shares a project at the Shanghai World Expo next year: A seed cathedral made from the seeds from the millennium seed bank. (Google it as my words will do it no justice.)
3) The creative step is in the brief that we get, or the brief we set ourselves. Not the designing bit.
4) Great presentation by Thomas Heatherwick : he concluded with a toilet with a living hinge door! (It is a reflection that a great design has details that are also inspired by the overall concept.)

Feng Zhu: Entertainment 2050
1) I don’t really work in 2050, I work 1000 years in the future!
2) Goes back to his product design roots for look at Entertainment 2050.
3) No matter what, people’s basic needs will not change. Showing off, love, shelter etc. It is likely that many things won’t change.
4) Micro payment will be big. Ad posters will be made of digital paper, and will reward consumers for looking at it.
5) Movies will run on a subscription model and accessible from all your devices, PC/TV/Phone etc.
6) Gaming will be much of the same. Graphics will be cooler but the enjoyment factor will be similar.
7) Gaming will have eye tracking features, so the game can throw challenges in areas that you are not looking at.
8) Your friends on social networks will continue to be your main gaming partners, but it will expand into many platforms not just Facebook.
9) Computer screens will not get much bigger as there is only so much real-estate we can visually handle. But resolution will be super high.
10) Despite touch screens, computer mice will still be a big input device.
11) Desktop manufacturing will be big. For example a racing game will allow you to buy a 3D model of your winning car and make your own real world model to keep.
12) Me: I like how Feng Zhu draws over photos. Its brings in a realistic elements to a sketch. Product designers can learn this to represent sketches in real world environments.
13) Personal Storage system (USB sticks): very evolve and become isolated protected silos of data. It will contain all the OS and information you require and is able to access the data via sliding it into a shell PC.
14) All devices will be interconnected and have similar processing power despite its physical size. (In other words, physical size of a product will be a result of consumer focused needs rather than a reflection of processing power)
15) We will be able to play many games in one go, switching from windows to windows. (Processing power will be strong enough for this.)
16) Portable gaming will be big and self-aware. It will be location-aware so that it can times your games in context to match your location/destination.
17) Portable gaming will have focused sound cone technology so only the player can hear the sound and not his neightbours.
18) Expect a customer created environment that consists 100% always on live feeds. Advances in mini cameras and fast/cheap broadband will allow people to watch your dog or your baby any time, all the time.
19) Stores advertising will be customized. It will take a 3D photo of you and offer you new clothes mapped over your body shape.
20) E-magazines instead of Paper. With a subscription based model.
21) Wikipedia will have augmented reality interface, where it automatically loads up location information through a HUD.
22) Products will be about consumers wanting it than marketers pushing it. (Anyone can say iPhone?)

Unfortunately I missed out Bill Mitchell: Reinventing the Automobile 2050, and Foster and Partners: Sustainable Cities 2050. However I did manage to come back in time for the panel discussion.
1) Feng Zhu: Computers have not made us smarter, they have, perhaps, made us dumber.
2) The future will be how do we manage (digital) knowledge movement rather than (physical) people movement?
3) Feng Zhu: At the end of the day people want something in return. Nobody does things for free. If this is the case how can we hope to create a utopian society for the common good together?
4) We already know what we need to do. It is now about the how? Design should always be part of something bigger.
5) There is evidence that people are willing to give things for free. Feng Zhu: However it is proven that user creation is pure chaos. How do we then exercise control?
6) How do we build thought leadership? Design brought into education at an early age. Feng Zhu: design should be made into a viable career.
7) So are we capable of policing ourselves? Is it possible to change ourselves and create a better way?
8) If we can’t get control of ourselves what future do we have?
9) Design awards are a useful education tool for the public on what is good design. But what about the judges? How do we judge the judges?
10) Feng zhu: Why not let public decide on what is a good design. Otherwise it is designers just voting on their own designs.
11) Thomas: Design awards have no public profile. Awards are only good for making the organizers a lot of money, and motivating designers and clients.
12) Can we get the public to do design?
13) Thomas: I don’t think so. Clients want us (designers) to do our best work not pander to their needs. (Otherwise what use are we?)

The following comments are an audience response to question open to the floor and on twitter: “What are your thoughts of the world in 2050”?
1) Consumerism is dead.
2) Keep information open sourced for all of us to share and learn.
3) Humans are very good at solving problems.
4) Where do we come from and where do we go?
5) I’m afraid I might miss this exciting time! (in 2050)
6) Brucenussbaum: Icsid is ending now split between practical Singaporeans and Utopian designers.
7) Designers are problem solvers. Want a good 2050? Let’s start in 2 months, in 2010.
8) This (2050) is not going to happen unless we consider the people that earn $2 a day or where life is cheap.
9) @brucenussbaum: Emily Polliton and Stefano Marzano held as best presenters by Israeli audience looking for design relevance at Icsid.

That’s all for the congress content, however going forward Design 2050 studios will live on. Firstly it will be turned into a documentary in 2010 and then eventually into a system and opportunity for everyone to be involved in the conversation.

Do u want to wait for the future to happen, or go out to happen to the future? Come all to join the conversation at www.design-2050.groupsite.com. See you there and thanks for following!

Day 2 was really the meat of the congress. There were a number of powerful presentations that really set the scene and provided a wake-up call for everyone participating. Emily Pilloton, the 2nd keynote, gave a powerful account of design doing what it does best: solving problems. A nice reminder of the problems we are having now while we look towards 2050.

Chris Luebkeman in his Studio: Life @ 1 Planet 2050…or Naught, painted 4 scenarios of how our world may evolve to. Design Blind Spots by Toshiko Mori was unexpectedly shocking as she showed a wasteland in the middle of Canada that was being used to mine oil sands and shipping the oil product to the US. Finally Healthcare 2050 by Stefano Marzano was the most powerful of all. Stefano hypothesized when the DNA gene mapping is complete, our concept of healthcare will be revolutionized. Called Cupio Curo, this health system tracks a person’s DNA map, predicts the type of healthcare required over a person’s lifespan, and creates a relevant and sustainable individualized care system for that person.

After these presentations, the 9 studios ran their content again, and the day closed with a panel discussion. The following notes are the Day 2 highlights of the keynote speeches and presentations by the Design Studios 2050 masters. Enjoy!

Emily Pilloton: The industrial design revolution.
1) Founded Project H out of frustration of a design industry focusing on commodities and an unjustified luxury market.
2) She then shares Project H’s 6 design rules and values that she thinks all designers should adopt:
i. There is no design without (critical) action. Stop talking about it and get on with it.
ii. We work with, not for (clients). (This I love!)
iii. We start locally, and scale globally. How can you design for someone when you are not there?
iv. We create systems not stuff. Take design out of products and focus design into systems or the experience.
v. We document, share, and measure the outcomes. It’s not about whitepapers, but sharing the methodology with other designers so that it can be replicated in many countries.
vi. We build. In the most basic sense. This is something forgotten by many designers and we should bring it back as a very important part of the design process.
3) Project H has no offices; we operate in the places where the design will be used, like at homeless shelters etc.
4) Project H uses design to create sustainable revenue streams. (Wow! This really touched me. Getting design to help someone earn a living. Teach a man to fish!)
5) Without the opportunity to learn through the hands the world remains distant and engaged – Emily quotes Shopcraft as Soulcraft.
6) Designers should throw your laptops out of the window and go back to building things by hand.
7) Finally: design can change the world – www.projecthdesign.com

Chris Luebkeman : Life @ 1 Planet 2050 or Naught.
1) Accept that: Change is constant!
2) Big problem: A selfish bubble. Humans are living in denial of the problems of the world.
3) We learnt 2 things: i) Comfort zone constipation, ii) the future is always oversold.
4) To find out what the world in 2050 will be, the studio asked for people to role play characters where the first premise is characters will survive to 2050!
5) Check out the awesome profiling and character creation and full story at www.thedesign2050challenge.com
6) When will we replace ourselves? Where in the next 20 years we can grow body parts, what will we do?
7) What do we do when there is no job security? Where are my neighbors? What happens to transport and logistics when we flip our hemispheres?
8) What does your garden grow? Will there be a black market of trees? (WOW!) Sun-forests to rain forests?
9) What happens when your home sinks? What happen when nations die? Are you a part time citizen?
10) There are 4 plausible futures.
i. Selfish bubble: Where Humans live in denial.
ii. Life is cheap [the vortex of despair]
iii. Carbon is crime. We decide to repair the planet at even human detriment. Waste becomes a resource.
iv. The ecological age: we accept and look at how the world is working and we mimic nature.
11) The future is fiction: What will normal be? What do we hope will be normal?
12) We have to get to the ecological age! We must!
13) There are consequences in everything we do. Designers must understand this.

Toshiko Mori: Design Blind Spots
1) By 2050 the North Pole was devoid of all summer sea ice. Therefore expect the decline of fishes and sea coral. (This is a bleak look at the future, which is a similar story to others.)
2) This is heavy on the sustainable content, and I think the message is clear. Take care of our home, or we will pay for it.
3) The Design Blind Spots discussion is about areas between solutions as we currently solve problems in a silo platform, i.e. as designers, or as architects or as politicians etc.
4) The Canadian oil sand mining is a huge problem. The activity is stripping the earth, and producing oil as much as Middle East.
5) Using this as a scenario as a basis, Toshiko uses awesome Design thinking, to bring together policy, mining commission, and people to find a solution to this oil sands mining problem.
6) Design thinking involves both low-level execution and high-level strategic thinking.

Stefano Marzano: Healthcare 2050
1) In 2050 we will have a global population of 9 billion with 90% living in cities. 2 billion of which are over 60.
2) Health insurance in US would be 41% of household income in 7 years, by 2040 cost of care will rise 270%.
3) Huge burden for the young and those in the active workforce.
4) I’m not going to talk about smart products or future hospitals. I will talk about holistic healthcare.
5) We are in a global community as epidemic and infections do not respect borders.
6) Inclusiveness and global accessibility of healthcare solutions. The current hospitals are like factories.
7) We come in with complaints, treated based on complaints, and moved out for the next patient. No real holistic monitoring or aftercare.
8) Here are some possible future scenarios:
i. A future mother because of hereditary diseases she is able to get help from healthy DNA for her baby
ii. With advances in DNA we can track a person’s life cycle and predict the possible healthcare requirements he/she needs.
iii. Mary was 85 and before she died she asked to be reborn. As she loved nature, her DNA was combined with an orchid and replanted.
iv. Pete wanted to extend his life and transplanted the lung of his faithful pet dog.
9) Healthcare will naturally lead to ethical issues. But we need to go beyond our understanding of what healthcare is today.
10) We need to look at the total picture. Genetics, family structure, diet, education, environment, before we can look for better healthcare. This is Cupio Curo.
11) Cupio Curo will require a lifetime of data monitoring that will allow for prevention, treatment and aftercare.
12) Death is a discussion in healthcare 2050. In this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes
13) Thus the question is to ask what will we leave behind? Do we want to be part of the continual cycle of life?
14) Care based on the genetic blueprint and our understanding of DNA mapping will be a reality in 2050
15) Because the future does not fall out of the sky…so we need to be active participants in accurately predicting 2050

Overheard in the Design 2050 studios:
1) Bangle: the world is user generated or created. Nothing in an automobile is user generated.
2) Bangle: Designers under brands have major constraints to work with.
3) Bangle: You can only change a car once in 7 yrs. That slow renewal is a problem for the industry.
4) Bangle: Together with brand constraints the auto industry will be diff to change.
5) Bangle: The competitive nature of the car design selection process means designers will disassociate yourself from your car/design.
6) Bangle: Remain as passionate about design as possible in victory and in failure.
7) Bangle: Modernism killed the influence of culture in design. There seem to be only a few ways to design stuff.
8) Bangle: What is your cultural contribution to design? Forget about the euro centric modernism form etc.
9) Bangle: I want all of you to be courageous. Don’t worry too much about what people think about you when you are doing the right thing.
10) Feng Zhu: Want to bankrupt a film studio, design a film set with fur and water. (Like that Wookie home world!)
11) Feng Zhu: Concept art is not about showing a design but to actually showing how it feels.
12) Feng Zhu: Colors are vital. Many elements add to feeling. (Concept designers have a strong awareness to detail, which are elements that can build a scene.)
13) Feng Zhu: Printed folios only! Best way to communicate. USB folios are a big virus risk and not for collaborative sharing.
14) Feng Zhu: Entrepreneurial designers know that your sketch/work is worth money.
15) Feng Zhu: People hire concept designers for their ideas not sketching ability. Sketching is a means to an end.

Overhead during the panel discussion moderated by Paola Antonelli:
1) Paola asks: What is the social role of the designer today?
2) Toshiko: Design should be more like art? Should designers be like artist? Emily: It’s a slippery slope.
3) Stefano: Designers should be a little more modest. *applause*
4) How do we (designers) benevolently manipulate people to do and live better?
5) Toshiko: Living sustainability is not that difficult! We used to do it before but we just lack desire now!
6) Stefano: Design thinking is not special; it is more about thinking for the good of people.
7) Emily: There is a certain level of trust required before you can really co-design with others.
8) Paola: How can design influence politicians? Stefano: designers should join politics.
9) Emily: Sustainability has failed because it hasn’t provided a better alternative.
10) Emily: Design as an act of citizenship. Designer should work in areas that matter like public schools, poor homes etc.
11) Feng Zhu in the audience: Asks the panel how much of design is influenced by money?
12) Stefano: Designers still struggle with the ability to demonstrate the economical value of design. Suggests that Icsid adopt this as part of its charter.
13) Design and education has to go hand in hand. Emily: the best way to sell design is to get the public involved.
14) Stefano: Design needs to resolve our own internal issues before we can go to world.

That’s all for the highlights from Day 2, do stay tuned for Day 3 which will likely be up tomorrow!

Over the last few days, I conducted a whirlwind tour of the different events and exhibitions at the Singapore Design Festival 2009. There were some interesting work exhibited that reaffirmed my faith in the quality of designers or designs from the region. Some of the more notable exhibitions include; Small Thoughts, Big Ideas, Singapore Souvenirs and the UseLess Exhibition at the Icsid 2009 Congress.

Check out the slideshow of my photos from my Flickr set: Singapore Design Festival 2009.

Do come back and check out this slideshow for updated images in days to come.

If you are interested in more images, do visit the official SDF 2009 site or their Facebook fan page.

I finally got the pleasure to meet up with Michelle Berryman in person. I got know Michelle as a moderator at Core77 and also follow her closely on Twitter (@micberryman). Many Design Sojourn readers from the US would probably recognize her as the former president of the IDSA.

During the day she is the founder and principle designer at Echo Visualization, a consultancy that focuses on interaction and user experience design. So over a nice morning coffee (or kopi as we call it here), I asked her what she thought of Bruce Nussbaum’s comment that Designers are moving away from designing products to designing experiences.

I manage to get an opportunity to have a quick to chat with Pernilla Johansson. She is the Asia-pacific Design Director of Electrolux and is based here in Singapore. In the spirit of designing the future in 2050, I asked her about “The Future of Food Preparation”.

Oh by the way when she mentions about turning vegetarian, she was kidding. She was responding to a 2050 scenario where it was proposed to recycle old buildings into high rise farm. (ie cows on the 5th floor, and lettuces on the 15th).

As promised here are some of the highlights of Day 1 of the Icsid Design Congress 2009. I’ve summarized all the best points and significant comments. Unfortunately, I won’t cover all the content as it will just be too much. Also, I’ve kept the comments short and in point form, as I don’t have too much time to beautify it, hopefully it is enough to get the job done. I’ll go back to fix it in the future, and that is the power of the internet: being in Beta!

We got off to a flying start with Bruce Nussbaum interviewing Singapore’s Minister of Finance, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam. They discussed the biggest design project there can be, the designing of a country. Some of the key points were as follows:

1) Singapore knew from the start that there was no such thing as a free lunch. The leaders of the county recognized to survive they needed to overcome their weaknesses (like no natural resources) and leverage on their strengths.

2) Singapore also knew that they did not want to be followers and carved their own path or future.

3) Singapore used technology to overcome her weaknesses, such as water purification. But recognize that it’s now time to transition into center of creativity.

4) One of the challenges was also managing the country’s diverse cultures and population. Fortunately this diverse melting pot of cultures is seen as a strength for that move into a creative economy. The country is very good at welcoming people and encourages them to call Singapore home.

5) Bruce asks what about the entrepreneurial culture. The Minister acknowledges that Singapore is not known as an entrepreneurial society, but holds a social system that large companies will find comfort in. Minister agrees we can do better and we will, as it is very important for indigenous local companies and brands for our nation building.

6) Minister Tharman sees a vision of Singapore being the central meeting point as the East moves to the West moves to the East.

Next up is Arnold Wasserman and he asks a few key questions to set the scene for the Design 2050 studios studio masters presentation below.

1) Design 2050 was a call to action to designers, for their role of being responsible for the world’s material culture.

2) How do we move from more is better to better is better?

Chris Bangle: Personal Emotional Mobility 2050.
1) So what is personal emotional mobility? It is a personal freedom you enjoy and power.

2) What we related on a car and what we rely on a car is different.

3) How can we reinvent the car? It has to be, personal, able to set your own pace in traffic, part and be adaptable to your needs.

4) Can cars be modular like a PC? Could you share your car parts but keep personal?

5) Can cars be manufactured locally? Cars will be different for the communication generation as cars will now be Avatar. Can cars do more in the future than just sit outside? So now cars are not about sculpture but gesture.

6) We need a disruptive period before we can think and imagine a better place.

Ravi Naidoo, Protofarm 2050.
1) How to bring people closer to the creation/harvestion process of the food they eat?

2) Do we change our world to suit ourselves, or change ourselves to suit the world?

3) Self-sufficiency can be achieved. If it works you don’t need to leave your home for food!

4) Privatizing natural resources to protect them and keeping them from being destroyed.

Panel Discussions:
1) Richard Hassell’s new concept: “wenergy.” Energy + weather. On a Sunny day we get more solar energy, and on Windy days more wind energy production. This gives us an energy surplus or deficit situation depending on the weather conditions.

2) Bruce Nussbaum: Design born out of necessity is the best design.

3) Chris Bangle: Car design has not faced up to a need for massive change.

4) Chris Bangle: Car design should not get away from how other kinds of designs are evolving. It is now not just about forms.

5) Richard Hassell: Lots of excited government officials joining the conversation and understanding how design can even impact policy.

6) Paola Antonelli: how do you design for the bio-diverse world?

7) Ravi Naidoo: Co-creation is the key. Designing with the communities.

8) Chris Bangle: Not happy with car industry’s view on customization. It is not just about changing a little to make it personal.

9) DT (that’s me!): What about the concept of Fabbing, co-creation, and in-home manufacturing?

10) Arnold Wasserman: Asks the jury, what is happiness and what is a good life? Should we not consider this higher purpose as it is linked to out objectives of this Studios?

11) Bruce Nussbaum: Design is getting away from a reputation of feeding consumerism, to designing experiences.

12) Final question with no answer but for us to ponder: Shall we design a new culture?

Ok friends, hope you enjoyed these highlights of Day 1. Do stay tuned for Day 2.

Throughout this Icsid congress (and maybe after), I will be running a special podcast series where I will conduct a very casual 5 minutes “unplugged” session with a prominent design professional and ask him or her a question related to a pressing concern in design or something to do with the year 2050.

We kick off this series with none other than our favorite sketch god, Feng Zhu, who is well known for his work with George Lucas in Star Wars and Transformers the movie. In our 5 minutes, I ask him his thoughts on the importance of traditional (or technical) design skills in today’s entertainment industry as well as in industrial design.

 
Sorry about the background noise, the chat was recorded with my iPhone in a very casual environment!

Feng Zhu was a great guy, very knowledgeable and a consummate businessman. It was a pleasure discussing everything from doing business in China, being a better designer, and the future of entertainment.

For more information on Feng Zhu and his Design Studio: Entertainment 2050, check out the official write up at the Icsid congress website.

As mentioned in a recent post I will be taking part and covering the Icsid Congress 09 here on Design Sojourn. What’s even better, is that I will also be covering the Singapore Design Festival, where I will try to go to as many events as possible!

Please don’t forget to bookmark this post, so that you can come back to it as often as you like. It will be a pseudo-directory that I will be frequently updating with either new topics or links to the latest posts covering either the congress or the festival.

Icsid Congress 09

Sneak peek off the Congress materials!

Live Twitter coverage at @designsojourn with the hash tag #icsid09.

Daily summary of the Icsid Congress:
a) Summary of Day 01
b) Summary of Day 02
c) Summary of Day 03

An exciting series of 5 minute interviews with the congress speakers and studio masters called “Designer Unplugged: 5 mins with…”
a) Feng Zhu on “The importance of traditional design skills”
b) Bruce Nussbaum on “The evolution of design thinking”
c) Pernilla Johansson on “The future of food preparation”
d) Michele Berryman on “Designers moving towards Designing Experiences”.

Shameless plug: Design Sojourn is an official online partner!

Singapore Design Festival 2009

Live Twitter coverage at @designsojourn with the hash tag #SDF09 .

Exhibition and event highlights:
a) Photo coverage of the Singapore Design Festival 2009

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I hope you enjoyed this coverage, and please do bear with me will I try my best to get the posts or links up as quickly as I can!

This article was originally written for Yanko Design (YD). As I know that there are some Design Sojourn readers don’t really frequent YD, I thought it would make sense to republished a record of the article here. I do hope you enjoy reading it, and I’m looking forward to all your comments.

Image by: Dalydose

I have been thinking about the relationship between creativity vs. design vs. where does it comes from. I have also wondered why some people, not just designers, are more creative than others? Here are some of my thoughts on creativity that may help you understand what it is and how to get it going for you.

1) Creativity does not exist in a vacuum.
The thing about creativity is that it cannot exist without a baseline, starting point, trigger or input. In other words you will not be able to come up with a design or a design solution if you do not set the parameters or boundaries first. A good clear brief and/or design strategy is always required to start the ball rolling as it gets everyone excited. Therefore I am a strong believer that nothing beats the freedom that comes from a tight brief. The trick here is to ensure the boundaries are set wide enough so that it gives designers enough space to maneuver.

2) Creativity is free, work is where the value is.
I highly believe that everyone is creative in his or her own way. Given the right conditions and stimuli, great ideas can rise to the surface. Therefore I find ideas are overrated as almost anyone can come up with some – often without much effort. The problem is when you have to convert creativity from an idea into reality. This is the hard part – so hard that it pays to do it well. The genius sketch is an urban myth, the real heroes are the designers in the trenches that realize it and make it happen.

3) Creativity is better shared.
One nice thing about creativity is that an idea can grow into a much more powerful idea if shared. Bouncing ideas around with each other or in your creative community really works. I always look, with sadness at close-minded individuals who refuse to share; or overly competitive design students hiding in their holes. They do not know what they are missing. This goes back to point 2: Ideas are cheap, execution is the key.

4) Creativity can be fostered.
If you want to excel at being creative, you can. All you need is to know how and practice. When you start out in design, getting a designer’s block is a very common thing. Sometimes no matter how hard you try, you just cannot get a design right, or out of your head. A small part of this is confidence, but most is about practice. As you get better in design or when you do it more frequently, creativity seems to flow a lot better. Getting into a mental state of design readiness also keeps you from getting rusty. At the end of the day you need to use it or lose it and a busy designer is never stuck.

5) Creativity is not Design
I find people who look at a product or sometimes a piece of art and say “even I could do it” are pretty naive. My usual response is “why didn’t you?”. That is the thing, while having creativity is a prerequisite, being creative does not equate to being a good designer. There is a certain mix of elements that makes a great designer. Some of these skills include having the right training, story telling, EQ skills, people management, analytical thinking, synthesizing ability, perseverance etc., the list goes on and I am sure you can come up with more. Being creative is a good start, but I have never heard of successful designers that are creative and lazy.

Crowded Elevator with Crystal by Daniel Greene

If you look around you I’m sure you can find plenty of great advice on how to write a good design brief. Therefore I will assume that most of you would know what they are and how to do so. However I have found that such advice are often “cookie cutter” at best, and may not necessary help you get your design job done right. However if you want a better and tighter brief, these 5 steps might just help you turn your design into a great one!

1) Create an “elevator pitch”
Top on the list of things to have is an “elevator pitch” in your design brief. Essentially it is a short blurb that describes what your brief or design effort is all about. Adapted from my experiences with entrepreneurs, I found that entrepreneurs often use an “elevator pitch” to communicate or sell their business idea to someone else in a quick and concise way. Therefore, I see a lot of value for design managers to use an “elevator pitch” as a means to communicate the essence or gist of the brief to everyone, including members of the design team or even back to the client.

2) Build a hierarchy of needs
The next thing to do after diligently taking down all your business partner’s requirements is to prioritized them within a “hierarchy of needs”. A good design is one that fulfills the requirements of a brief, however it is impossible for a design to fulfill all the requirements of the brief equally. Thus a hierarchy of needs is important to ensure you will create a design that has focus.

It might sound like compromise, but it is not. It is about laying out the facts and managing expectations, so that your client is fully aware what he/she will be getting at the end of the day. For example, if cost pressures are a factor, you should not be creating a design with expensive materials, or embossing on letterheads.

3) Key benefits to be communicated in the design
These days, designs should not only be about making an object look good but also part of a meaningful brand language or a holistic business strategy. Therefore Designs have to communicate its intent, its benefits, and also resonate with the consumer. Lots to do! Therefore you should identify, with your colleague, client or business partner, the key benefits that need to be communicated in a design so that it can be a success in a competitive marketplace. Try to minimize the number of benefits as much as possible. Even better, keep it to just the most important benefit.

4) What is the big picture and how is the design part of it?
Any Design (product, graphic, interaction etc.) will be always part of a bigger story. It could be part of a family of products, or a range of similar products differentiated by specifications, or even just a simple accessory. At the end of the day, a successful product solution has to not only beat the competition but also play well with its friends. Therefore it is always a good idea to not create designs that will cannibalize the sales of existing products.

5) How are you going to make this thing?
Most of us designers, in any discipline, usually know how to get things made. It’s part of our training. However, the choice of our manufacturing or creation process often comes after we decide what we want the product to be. While this is great for genre breaking design work, the people who pay the bills may not be similarly inclined. So it is good to find out upfront what sort of manufacturing constraints, product part cost targets, or manufacturing strategies that should be considered during the design process. Once you identify the constraints, you should do what any decent designer would, ignore it! But seriously, it is good to bring realism into the discussion early in the game.

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Well I hope you enjoyed this post, and perhaps if you might have more suggestions to add. If so, I do look forward to reading your comments below.