Design: Artistic Flow or Step by Step Process?

Having worked in design for many years, either as a designer or running an agency the subject of design has always been a tough one to describe.

The design we’re involved in is not fine art / or globally award nominated but does have to answer a brief and deliver results for a client.

In my career I have worked with various clients and designers and have always came across the same difficulties to name few:

• Designers fully understanding project brief
• Designers no utilising their time, being critical and revising their own design
• Clients fully understanding design process
• Meeting client’s expectations wants vs needs
• Working on where their value add
• Design being subjective – one person’s Mona Lisa is another person’s Comic Sans.

London has a pool of designers and we’re very lucky to have creative hubs all over London, and this difficulty that I have in explaining the ability to make a project your own and deliver back a fantastic result, even with clients who can be painful and from time to time overbearing to the point you have to say ‘NO’ you came to me and this is what we are doing.

It’s not an easy field to be in and not always appreciated. I’ve tried in the past to sell my services to individuals who do not value design, DON’T do it, you never win. They either want a digital hand (take their sketch and make it a computer file) or interfere too much in design decisions.

I will offer options to clients and make my opinion own which I prefer with justification, so they know what a professional thinks about their brief and why ‘this’ is the solution.

This is a skill I’ve honed over the years and I’m extremely grateful for my degree education as I really believe this has given me a real edge and solid foundation over other designers.

I’ve had many people say to me ‘I don’t know how you’re in design it is so subjective’, ‘how do you sell what is best when your client’s may hate it?’, ‘creatives don’t work to a process so we have to work around them before doing x/y/z’. Then there is the other side of the design coin which you will read about in most art/design magazines/books where design is treated as if unobtainable almost god like ability to design……utter nonsense.

Every business and every project needs to follow some kind of process. There is a process and there is a design style/eye which a designer will hone during their career. Time management, efficiency and critical eye is also needed but we are always following a process. This is for our and clients benefit so we have clearly stated points where we review, reassess and communicate with clients that everything is on track and how they wanted.

In conclusion, YES design is a process. Why is this doubted? I'm not sure, maybe because of the creative element being seen as an unknown? On this subject I seem to be asking more questions than providing answers so I'll leave it there.

www.formatdesign.com