DESIGNERR : A DESIGNER’S ERROR

While human error is inevitable, a designer’s error is not pardonable. Designers are always surrounded by vulnerability factors that knowingly or unknowingly could cause the error to happen. Should it therefore be seen as an individual’s failure or the failure of the system that the designer operates within? Is a designer’s error the result of inevitable imperfections in the process or related to the limitations of the individual? Errors by designers could also be as a result of triggers in misunderstandings, interpretations by mis-observations or unqualified conclusions that happen without detailed analysis and knowledge gathering.

Much has been said casually and read laterally about ‘there is no harm in making errors because errors are a natural part of learning’, but in branding design, errors are not acceptable. Those who manage brand design should be extremely careful about the controls applied in design processes and inefficiency of conventional practices when designing for brands. As the world of brands evolves, the processes and methodologies of branding design should also be refined, re-defined and re-purposed to address the new challenges into the reading of the growing complexity of consumer behavior, avalanche of new brands introductions 24X7 compelling a distinctive desirable presence and new rules of marketing in the web locked life in which purchase decisions are influenced by pop-ups and at the control of index fingers, visible stars, reviews and how many times the brand was purchased in the last open eye hours.

?As a responsible branding and design firm of the new era, it is crucial to create Design Management Systems (DMS) that embrace new Ideas of Design Efficiency, Improve Innovation without mirroring the past and use inputs that increasingly validate the output of design processes. ??

Here are some useful tips for brand designers and design managers when they embark on their journey in the real world of branding and design communications:

A.???Do not believe that a search engine will optimize the hunt for answers and minimize the rate of natural exploratory design research work – FUNNY isn’t it? It has been observed that the first thing that designers do once out of the briefing session is to rush to a search engine and type the key words that they believe (or made to believe via white boards) will give quick and simple answers to the big questions that took weeks or months to create (the brief). The beauty of any design comes alive when it is done with honesty and purity of mind. The design which originates without rapid observational estimations and without casual overgeneralization of uniquely eye-full observations is the design which everybody loves to see, believe and own. It is always fun to create such designs.

?

B.???The past is just a story and if you don’t realize, it will overpower you in creating a future that looks very much like the past itself – SAD isn’t it? It has been observed that in order to trigger active productive creative sparks in designers, a method called as ‘competitive scan’ is very well practiced, in which a given set of brands and their brand designs are presented or made to view (benchmarking) as the thought starters completely ignoring the fact that what has been done is not what is supposed to be done even after knowing that what was done and why it was done is unknown from the origins of the brief, the situation of the brand when the brief was written and who had caused/ led the interpretation of the brief for the benefit of the design. What we call as a Systematic Analytical Determination (SAD) is not always well-calibrated to produce efficient results and a desirable output which is devoid of randomness quotient.

?

C.??You can be possessive about who you love as a person, not with what you create as a designer, as you are merely a facilitator, a catalyst and not the owner or the user for whom it has been made for – MAD isn’t it? Many times, it has been observed and detected that designers are resistant to changes in their creations while the process is still on. Possessiveness in design curtails the natural process of learning and the creation of an appropriate perspective to perfectionism. By listening to reviewer’s observations, ideas and inputs, the designer could be able to create a mindset to understand the opportunity of strategy and progress towards a more accurate design visualization. From being just a designer, he/she can move into a role of a design strategy enabler and exhibit problem solving skills and ability to utilize design thinking methodologies for the greater good. Methodical Applied Design (MAD) system is a sequence of events starting right from the interpretation of the brand design brief to the expression of design motive in front of the client and finally the impression of the design for the end user. ?????

?

The author is a branding and design communications expert with over 18 years of service in ‘shaping brand dreams by design’. Views expressed here are based on his experience as a design manager and strategic brand design management principles believer. ?