Design Friction: How Design can defend?
We all like to think that design is smooth and curvy, creative and smart, enjoyable
and easy, but we are largely wrong. Design has its own pitfalls and has to
undergo many challenges before it is called DESIGNED. In some fields Design has
earned its honours by virtue of the necessity. In others it has gained honours
by defeating all odds in its process of creation and existence. Design has
managed to earn itself a title of polished and sophisticated in many fields.
Fashion is one of them. Design also has its impression in engineering and
technology. Lamborghini & Apple are some of them. Design in architecture
and education have already proven their status. You think of an industry and
you will find Design presence. Those who have not yet embraced Design will do
so in a short span of time.
But it is not all so easy for Design,
Designers or Design People. They have to face a lot of friction before Design
becomes what people admire, acknowledge and accommodate. Whether it is Business
Design or Consumer Design, Social Design or Institutional Design, at every
stage Design has to go through a lot of friction.
In this article I will focus on my area of
design (i.e. branding design - packaging) and what that friction is. Do these
frictions create “Heat of the Moment” or easily cool down in the process and
freeze into the avatar?
Packaging design has often raised eyebrows (if
it has to start somewhere). I have met a lot of responsible people who consider
packaging design as a tool to make products available
at a point where it can be paid for, for
all the hard work. Even in this era there
are consumer product marketers who have such a view on packaging design. And if
you ever get a chance to work with them you will realize what friction I am
referring to.
Many marketers often rely on sales force
for Design management issues, packaging design solutions and CHANGE, when the
sales team is for selling, availability, coverage and promotions (more
technical). Often the views expressed by the front line on matters of design
are disaster. They don’t understand what the basis of Design is, why certain colours,
fonts, nomenclature, packaging structure etc have been created and more
importantly how (inspiration) they have been created. For them the package is a token, on which they get targets & push it to achieve
targets. Their remarks sometimes sound like jokes. While I myself do not advise
isolation of the key sales people, super senior sales managers from discussions
and decision making or eliciting views, but I recommend that it should be taken
as an input and not judgement / directive. Decisions on Design are difficult to
take and no one likes to be in shooting range (risk averse). Packaging Design
is in many parts driven by culture, semiotics, demographics and psychographics which
are used to bring out the essence, personality & imagery, which is not an
area of concern for the sales team. For them culture is the language in which
they interact with the retailer/shopkeeper. And any of the latter is “I don’t
need to know”.
While this was easy on identifying the heat
of the moment, there are other very practical issues which keep the heat on,
more than any other. I have over the years realized some of these and would
like to share the same here.
F1 What I
want Vs What We want Vs What Customers want – I have come across instances where the
team managing the brand is not sure what the objective of the brand design is,
half way through the project. While it always starts with what the customer
wants, captured as a crisp brief, but gradually it becomes a tussle between two
states of mind (The executive and the boss - hierarchy). Many times we have
received feedback that is like ‘my boss wants it this way but I think it should
be this way. What do you think’? Such kind of feedback is like a poison which
kills slowly, slowly. It has the potential to burn down everything that ever
started with good spirit and motive. I have seen many Design People face this
challenge every now and then. The only way to avoid this is to stick to the
brief that was formulated, ask questions before putting pencil to paper, define
the parameters of evaluation and devise a holistic feedback process.
F2 Incomplete
or half sure –
There are many managers who are ‘Not Sure’ most of the time. If you ask them
how they feel, they will say “Not sure”. They make it worse by adding ‘What if...’.
Many times it also happens that new things come up in the middle of the design
processes which were not part of brief. These so called “New” create a lot of
problems & have the potential to destroy the essence of the Design and
create more irregularities than imagined. Not being able to make up the mind is
a weakness amongst many managers. This can be attributed to personality or
behavioural issues. Such people should learn how to plan, organize, execute
projects professionally for the benefit of the objective at hand and avoid
interim hiccups caused by indecisiveness.
F3 Constructive
Feedback Vs Casual Views – Usually feedback is very critical for any Design in the
making. It is important to consider constructive feedback as a catalyst for
improvement. But often those who are entrusted with productive feedback get
caught between what somebody thinks and what is actually useful for the Design.
Not being able to differentiate between the two could be unhealthy. One should
know how to filter feedback and channel the information that will be useful and
productive in the Design process. Filtering is a tool rather than a task. It is
about applying your sense and knowledge in a constructive manner rather than
getting carried away by anything and everything that is placed as a comment on
Design.
F4 Sum of
parts Vs One stop solution – Gone are the days when brand marketers used to rely on one
agency/ service provider for all brand design & communication needs. Today
the industry has got fragmented and many specialists have emerged who
participate in the making of the whole. Being a knowledge driven business there
are instances where the minds are at war, and Design is in the battle ground.
Roles and responsibilities should be clearly defined for any Design project to
avoid any casualties.
F5 Grammar
or language – One
of the most vulnerable issues in Design. I have noticed many brand marketers
clearly defining their objective / expectation as ‘young, modern and active’.
They don’t realize what each of these words could mean in the language of
Design Development and how the whole creation process could steer away from the
path if these words are not decoded in that specific scenario or situation. It
is not only with these three words but a lot is said which can be avoided so
that we don’t erode the essence we want to establish and mind space we wish to
occupy. Design people are highly sensitive to words/ grammar and any wrong word
or word misunderstood could end up creating a complete UFD – Unwanted Favourable Design.
F6 Taking Decisions – A lot of brand marketers
become indecisive when it comes to design discussions. There is some kind of
fear in saying that ‘we like it’ and ‘let’s go for it’. They often remark the
contrary, delaying the process and making more hills out of dust. Design often
needs a good reason, a strong inspiration & great interpretation. If these
tools are not accompanying design then there is bound to be friction.
F7 Deliberation – A lot of people like to
deliberately create confusion. They keep comparing situations, other brands,
other non related designs / issues causing clarity to get washed out like a
bucket of water. Soapy and slippery, people are bound to tumble. Time is of
essence in Design. Your ideas could become dreams if not put into action at the
right time. Great ideas become sluggish if they miss the timeline or deadline.
Bad ideas have no room for survival however they cause damage more than asked
for.
