Learning the subtle art of Imperfection

Last night I had this dream where i was swimming in what seemed to be a peaceful beach, relaxing in the cool water and enjoying what seemed to be a delightfully relaxing dream.

I was then attacked by a shark. It was sudden, without prior warning, promoting a sharp awakening that left me sweaty and grasping for my phone. After I had checked the time and had a sip of water I was able to relax again knowing I wasn't at risk of re-visiting the terrifying beach dream.

As i lay there in bed recovering from the attack of my subconscious, I couldn't help but notice that so many things can be represented as this beach. Projects, products, and teams all have the potential to go from a peaceful relaxing time at the beach to... ok a shark is attacking us. I guess that this happens everywhere in every industry and every job, we all face the very real potential of a random unprovoked metaphorical shark attack.

It was actually a few days later when i was finishing a bespoke icon set that i had been working on when suddenly realised that the worst and most frighting shark may be the one shark that i have capability to combat. Now i obviously cannot speak for everyone but for me, the most terror inducing vicious shark that i face everyday is in-fact myself.

I am my own worst enemy.

I am the one that says 'Thats not good enough' or 'You will be laughed at if you let that fly' or 'Scrap it, you know it's trash'.

Rob Jolles, Contributor to Huffington Post said "It’s not a crime to pursue perfection; it’s just a mistake." (source)

I think he hits the nail on the head. There is a culture to chase perfection. It gets drilled into you as a budding designer to 'pixel perfect' your designs. Make sure you "Lock Down" that style guide, "make it perfect".

Well, i am done with it.

The longer i am a designer the more i am sure that design is alive, and we live in a world where we now have the technology not just to display a new design but to in-fact grow a new design. Creating the embryonic ideas pushing them into the wild and evolving the design to better adhere to the problems its solving.

Sprouting a new design from rich research and solid heuristics and having, through its relationship with its users grow and evolve into the mature product.

I have been working to shift my creative problem solving priorities to 'Well, does it work?' rather than 'Is this the perfect solution?' and what i have found is suddenly the pressure of creating the perfect solution dissolves away.

Letting go of the entire concept of perfect is a challenging battle and it is one battle that I have defiantly not won, however with a new awareness I was able to begin to unwind old habits of perfection and as i did a world of wacky ideas opened up in front of me.

Without the chains of perfection i am able to express creativity beyond what the solution would ask for and in more than a few cases it was in-fact this freedom of creativity that gave way to some wild but brilliant ideas.

This was the beginning of my 'Pursuit of imperfection', what i believe to be a life long journey that i am embarking on.

Focus not on everything, just the things that matter.

Instead of fighting tooth and nail to align every pixel and to ensure every design is the optimal solution, I began putting more attention into the problem at hand. When you realise that in-fact you are solving a problem with every pixel you start to realise that it's not so important what pixels coloured and where they go as long as when it comes to solve the problem it does, effortlessly.

From a less technical point of view the freedom from perfection is what artist have been enjoying for thousands of years and it's the freedom of expression, away from any pursuit of perfection that gave way to some of the most beautiful works humanity has created.