OUT OF THE BOX BOXES
The ultimate warfare skill, as Sun Tzu wrote 2,500 years ago, is to avoid war. When we apply this kind of logic to design, which Quentin Newark defined as a "problem-solving skill", it turns out that the pinnacle of design lies in - avoiding problems.
But this is an EXTREMELY rare case. Most designers bravely tackle clients' megalomaniacal demands and immoderate personal ambitions, defy technology, examine ethical and aesthetic controversies, play in the midst of communicational and psychological trajectories - or in short: voluntarily blast in one problem after another.
Why is that?
Because we live in the time of perfomance. The current dominant doctrine implies a SIMULATION of doing something. Everyone, from the technocratic rulers of the world to the last street clown, is just goofing around and acting something out, running their own show, like a reality program. That's why the difference between clowns and politicians is so small, or between "great" artists and ordinary dorks.
And when we look at some rigid and measurable discipline, such as marketing, through the same prism, things get even more comical. Do you know that in some cases, with the help of adequate packaging, you can increase your profit margin by hundreds of percents? By simple repackaging, you move your product from lower to upper class, and that's it. For many "marketers" such a solution is invisible because it is too simple and "so retro". There are no spectacles, applauses, likes or followers on YouTube. Working on re-marketing, landing pages, sales funnels, link building, etc. sounds so much more powerful. So juicy, instagramic, sparkly and fancy, lots of Hi-Tech, IT, PR, CV...
And similar shit.
This was (to some extent) a mockery, but I believe you know very well what I'm talking about. So next time just ask yourself: "Is everything I do really necessary? Or is there a faster, easier and more efficient way?"
And do the right thing.
.
/ illustration: packaging for mobile phone masks - Mobile "A" / text originally published at https://detozin.deto.rs/