Sketching out the red pen

Part 4: Lessons, learning and better mistakes

As we hurtle through a world of constant change demanding greater resilience, there's a deep need to connect to the tangible, trustworthy and inspiring.

I'm turning (again) to the humble, handy and heroic tool, the pencil.?As well as an icon of artistic pursuits, the pencil can represent a change in how we experience the world, how we can explore complexity, and how we play, think and innovate.

If you are a leader in business looking to embrace new opportunities, a problem-solver stuck in the wickedness of modernity, a thinker or creative looking for new inspiration, I hope this series of graphite-tainted articles and art will lead you somewhere new.

I once worked with a senior executive who loved a red pen. They equated it wholly with quality. Of course, it is very true that typos and mitsakes ;) can undermine a message and undermine your audiences trust.

However, it's also not really as black and white (and red) as all that.

On one occasion, I watched someone take great initiative in reworking the content design and user-experience for an internal handbook. They revived the dry, box-ticking information (which came to the design dept. for 'polish') and reinvented it with an empathetic understanding of the audience and an informed notion of the handbook's purpose (which was mostly to delight, welcome and inspire, before getting into some detailed information). They used new, bold, branded language, bright visual design and added the usual creative magic dust to produce a truly wonderful piece of work.

Some copies were printed for presentation to this senior executive for their approval when they returned from leave.

They came back from holiday with a big red pen.

One (stupid, silly, annoying) typo was all it took. Despite several proofreads, everyone missed the missing S on the end of a word.

Ssssssssss………… $%^&*

Without evident consideration for the enormous change in quality the designer had made to the usability and effectiveness of the handbook, the executive told them that all their work was spoiled by a typo,… and threw it into the closest bin in front of them. "Completely worthless!" they exclaimed.

Wow.

Sometimes, the big red pen can edit out more than a typo.

Despite fixing the mistake and eventually using the book as intended, it lost all its shine from that point on. The designer, who was rightfully proud of the work, decided to step back from offering such an initiative again.

Innovators like to talk about how we "learn from mistakes". It's true the above scenario had a definite lesson. It should be: "let's fix our proofing process", but instead actually became: "let's not bother with innovating, let's just make sure there are no mistakes!"

There is a misconception that if we address our mistakes, then we will learn from them. But this always ignores the context, emotional damage (shame? embarrassment?) and time in a process when a mistake is made.

We don't learn from shame and embarrassment. Simple.

We definitely can learn from encouragement, reward and recognition.

Time for the pencil to step up!

Red pens are definitely important tools, but drafting with a pencil has significant benefits over the red pen check.

In a recent wonderful article entitled In Defence of Mistakes, Dan Ariely (Professor of Psychology & Behavioural Economics) wrote:

I am also advocating for better mistakes. What do I mean by better mistakes? We need to do the wrong thing the right way in order to maximize our learning. Specifically, we should aim to make more mistakes from bold action and fewer mistakes from inaction.

This is a hallmark of the pencil in action. The pencil, by its very nature, is ready to sketch, roll out another line, live happily in impermanence, where all bold action begins, and all risk can be grasped.

The red pen brings final touches of quality through restriction, disregard and dismissal.

Some of my favourite pencil holders are designers.

The best designers have an ability to hold competing ideas simultaneously while still searching for solutions. They thrive in that flexibility and their clients are assured by their understanding of complexity. Designers also have short feedback cycles built into their process. Whether that feedback is internal to them (stop, look, wait, sleep on it) or external reviews, they live and breath by the principles of the pencil.

In the 90's there was a graphic designer who got quite famous in a grunge rock-star kind of way. David Carson (still a living legend and influencer of many) made mockery of the red pen. For me, it is best summed up in this poster below.

Carson makes design work by getting to the heart of what needs to be communicated. That is, I would say, he builds emotional intensity through hands-on and chaotic styles that allow the reader to feel, react and interpret. In that order.

“I’m a big believer in the emotion of design, and the message that’s sent before somebody begins to read, before they get the rest of the information; what is the emotional response they get to the product, to the story, to the painting — whatever it is.” David Carson: Design and Discovery, TED 2003

What I like about Carson's work is how obvious his process is. He doesn't pretend to polish for consumer taste. He instead finds all the emotional power in the accidents coming from trial and error. The sketch, if you will.

My point is we should look out for, and make, mistakes at the right time in a process. Mistake should be the fuel that burns in discovery, exploring complexity and when motivation is ripe.

Terribly excellent mistakes should be made when problems seem too big or solutions seem far away. See what connects in ways you had never thought.

In design, this is the role of the pencil and paper. The place where a million scribbles can form a tiny idea for a layout, a logo or a much bigger idea. The place where an expressive sketch or "maybe" can create the basis for "perfect" later.

Let the red pen have it's 15 minutes of fame to bring it all home, but let's not assume the red pen is saving the universe from bad communication.

Making mistakes is an inevitable part of being human. Everyone makes mistakes. My suspicion is that in the near future we will yearn more for the sketch, for the process, for the evidence of human intelligence shaped by emotion and messy biases, in order to feel our humanity is being reflected back at us in authentic ways.

Get a pencil into your process!

I'm a creative and design leader helping government and business simplify, optimise and modernise using creativity and design.

No AI was used in the writing of this article. All images are hand illustrated …using a pencil and maybe some photoshop retouching.