Rick Rubin and Design

A while ago, I received a book tip from Daan: The Creative Act - A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. The tip was part of our conversations about art and artistry. Is art about being an artist? Or is art about the (final) work? Or is art a mindset? Rick Rubin says the following about it:

‘Intention is all there is. The work is just a reminder.’

Rick Rubin is a music producer who has had a huge influence on the music of the last 40 years. Many of the musicians he worked with are well known. From LL Cool J in the early days of hip-hop and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to the ‘come-back’ of Johnny Cash in the 1990s. And more, much more.

It is amazing that his role has been so invisible for so long.

I wondered to what extent we have a role like Rick Rubin's in design. I don't think we have. The Chief Design Officer might look like one, but that is mainly a BoardRoom role.

What fascinates me about the way Rick Rubin works is that he 1. plays an active part in the creative process and 2. does so by getting the best out of the musician. Without ego.

What can we, designers, learn from this? And how can we turn these insights into actions? I have elaborated my initial ideas below. About what that role could look like and especially what this would deliver. I am curious how you look at this

note:I often talk about clients below. I am not referring to a single person. Designers are employed by people within an organisation with a desire, need or ambition. These are the clients.

1. Ambitions

Many of the organisations and companies we have worked for over the past 15+ years are organisations with a strong individual character and culture. In healthcare, education but also KLM (‘the oldest airline operating under its original name.’). What makes these organisations so successful is that they are very good at what they do, day in and day out.

It seems much harder for them to do new things. Something that is necessary in a dynamic world, though.

Somewhat more specifically, it seems that the skill to keep innovating is the biggest challenge. Imagining what tomorrow might look like is already a challenge. Experimenting with ideas about the future is almost impossible. Why is that?

Back to Rick Rubin. He proposed to Johnny Cash that they should make his 'best album ever ’ together (video). Cash couldn't imagine that. Neither did Rick, but he had the confidence that if they just got down to work, you'd find out soon enough whether that album would come. Don't think too much, don't doubt, just get going. And ‘that best album ever’, that became seven more albums.

In our projects, I often think that we designers are quicker to realise what a better future could look like. That gives a lot of confidence. Something that is, like Johnny Cash, met with scepticism. In the past, we might do our best to explain why an idea is a good one. Much more effective, it seems, is to work with the client and include them in the design process.

This actually happens a lot already. Taking a brief, executing it and delivering output, those days may already be behind us. The difference I am referring to is that we need to work less towards a fixed end point (product or service) and more together. The focus of collaboration should be about getting comfortable with innovation. About exploring and experimenting together. About looking at that future together, whether it's next week, or 20 years ahead of us.

Perhaps it is a (new?) role for designers.

2. What could be

Design is a creative profession, so creative expression of the designer plays an important role. Especially in art schools you hear a lot of this: ‘Start with your fascination!’ ‘What do you want to bring to the world!’

In addition, design follows a strictly defined process in which you use proven tools and methods. This obviously benefits the predictability of the end result. In academic design education, this is the main focus.

It is important to be able to recognise the differences, even when they intertwine, because that is how design works in practice.

A fixed process full of mystery.

In his book The Design of Business, Roger Martin introduced the concept of Abductive reasoning. This way of thinking and doing is situated between analytical (deductive) and intuitive (inductive) thinking. Abductive reasoning, according to Roger, is also the way designers think.

One of the points he makes is that organisations are mostly trapped in analytical thinking. ‘The average manager has been trained and rewarded to look to the past for proof before making the big decisions.’ I think it is difficult for many designers, experienced or not, to do your job well in such an environment. And that's a shame because many opportunities for innovation are lost as a result.

A first step might be to name abductive reasoning concretely. Because here too, I think, it is about becoming comfortable with an unfamiliar logic. In this case with what could be true instead of looking back to what was true yesterday .

Perhaps it is a (new?) role for designers.

3. Beyond the picture

'Designers are good at imagining. It makes a possible future tangible for people.'

Imagining seemed to be the focal point of Dutch Design Week 2024. Many social issues were exhibited using solutions. This makes it easy for people to imagine the future. Designs to inspire. Talking pieces.

We recently delivered a mini-docu about a new innovative form of elderly care. A nice promotional tool, but not nearly enough to actually make a difference. The biggest challenge we experienced was to shift the perspective from a new form of elderly care to Growing old in a big city? This is how you do it! To make the latter a reality, more factors and organisations play a role than what you can show with a documentary.

Ideally, you want to make Growing Old in a Big City a reality. The dilemma is that, when you zoom out (in scale and time), one organisation (as a client) is'nt enough. After all, both the problem and the solution belong to all of us.

So to make a difference, visualisations are not enough.

4. Coaching

Coaching is perhaps the hottest profession in recent years. Helping others with their business and personal development issues. That's my perspective on coaching. And yet I don't think Rick Rubin is a coach; he is far too involved in the process for that. Nor do I think he takes charge, so he is not a leader either..

You would almost think his job is to crawl into the musician's creative brain to open the right doors. Something that requires a special kind of trust and collaboration. How might we designers harness this?

This question reminded me of a book. Make to Know, by Lorne Buchman.

The first chapter is an anecdote about the creation of the Apple Store. Interior design studio Eight Inc. had pitched a shop concept to Steve Jobs. The challenge for both Jobs and Eight Inc. was that no one knew exactly what the Apple Store would look like and how the shop would tell the story of the new iMac. The only way to find out was to get to work.

Eight Inc's role was to work with Steve Jobs and the Apple retail team to look at every part in every detail of the Apple Store. A collaboration in which the role of the design agency was to show what could be. How? By making.

So the role of the designer is about sketching out an idea and then working on it with the client. Perhaps our BoardRoom* initiative is an example of this; we have an idea of the value it will bring to creativity within organisations, but we cannot prove it yet. Time will tell.

There are huge opportunities for designers. The four points above are a mix of dilemmas, challenges and opportunities. It’s important that we develop a new perspective on our role in the future. Experience helps you grow, but I think something else is needed.?

I already have some ideas about this but am also curious to know how you, designer or not, see this.

1. The world is dynamic and always has been. While organisations actually derive certainty from the things that went right yesterday. Designers can help, in balancing between certainty and uncertainty, to start doing new things anyway. By experimenting within existing challenges, for example.
2. That chair, at the head of the table. Everyone knows whose it is. When innovating, it might be good to let go of those conventions. Designers can help recognise the different types of meetings and arrange them appropriately. Both spatially and in terms of programming. Be sure to read Chapter 7. of BoardRoom*.
3. We hear all too often how important it is to put your customers and employees first. And yet it seems that many organisations find it very difficult to address them, to ring their bells. Designers do. We even have tools like context mapping, personas and customer journey maps for it. But daring to ring the bell, that's where the real power lies.
4. Big and small, simultaneously and interchangeably. Working that way seems difficult for everyone, including designers. ‘After all, you can't save the whole world!’ Perhaps we should worry less about that, but instead become comfortable learning to think and do big and small. Think of Johnny Cash and his ‘best album ever’. What if the ambition was just to make the next album.
5. Making choices. If there is one thing that remains underexposed in the creative process, it is making choices. This is a pity and also a huge opportunity. Because a design process is full of moments when choices are made. Opinions are rarely part of this. Choices are made on the basis of research, insights and prototypes & experiments. It's not about what you think is right, but about what works.

And so there are other arguments and experiences on the basis of which we can work towards a new role for designers.

And not because Rick Rubin is an inspiring example, but because there are still so many Johnny Cash-es who deserve a Rick Rubin.