My Designer Manifesto
Last fall I heard the pitiful cry of my iMac dying: an alarming beeping not unlike the alarm on an emergency exit. There was no mistaking: my faithful and productive companion was throwing in the towel after 7 happy years together. I bundled it up in my car and went straight to the best Apple experts in the South Bay (happy to share this info). My main concern wasn’t the document files – those were safely backed up in the cloud – but my treasure trove of fonts was unreachable. In a stroke of extreme good fortune, my hard drive was unscathed and I was able to rescue absolutely everything. The next step was to bite the bullet and buy a new iMac – a straightforward although costly exercise until I was offered the choice of color: blue, green, orange, yellow, purple, pink or gray. After working for so many years – decades – surrounded by high level designers and time-honored design principles, my first instinct was to go with the staid and professional gray. In the spirit of the great architect and designer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, I considered less is more, understated is best, addition by subtraction – many design dictums swirled around my thinking.
And yet. Color for me is energy, and I was facing an array of truly inspired options. I thought, although a computer of this caliber is an investment, I know it won’t be my last one. Why not enjoy the beauty of a dramatic, fun hue? So I picked the pink and red one.
As I waited for this beautiful chunk of tech to arrive, I questioned my choice: Am I designer-y enough? Am I guided by best practices? I decided it was high time to I write a simple manifesto of my design principles: How I approach design, how I show up for my clients, and my work flow. Here’s what I came up with:
Honor the goals of the client. The project is not about me.
Dream big. Think expansively and ambitiously in the design development process.
Keep the design simple and relatable. Make sure it speaks to the client’s audience.
Stay current on industry trends, culture shifts and new technology.
Listen to feedback.
Stay on schedule.
Add something unexpected. Delight and surprise my client.
My guiding principle is to bring something of value to our work together – whether it’s an idea, a new perspective or special expertise that you might not have found on your own. In accomplishing those goals, I believe I’m the best designer I can be. And that pink and red computer absolutely rocks my design space.
