Design is Planning

We all want things quick and easy. Except when we finally build our dream home. We don’t just take any old floor plan. We want it designed. We want it thought out. We want a serious amount of empathy.

We want the designer of our house to know everything about us so he can design the home to suit our needs perfectly. We want space for our bicycles designed into the garage. We want our backyard designed to suit a Fourth of July super party complete with built-in grill, pool, patio, shade, garden and all the other bells and whistles a good back yard needs.

We need the right amount of bedrooms and baths and storage space and car spaces in the garage… on and on it goes. The line item checklist is a half a mile long that a designer need to think through.

The same is true for all design done properly. Whether it is a poster, or a chair, or a personal product, or a logo, there is a process and a checklist to make sure that the desired function is achieved.

Function is what it is all about.

Anyone can make a useless machine like a mobile. Something that sits and spins around in the air for no reason, catching our attention and fulfilling very little purpose other than tho illustrate the movement of air which is already done better by a tree.

It takes no thought or effort to tie things together and hang them. It takes entirely another person to conceive of the airplane, or the American Airlines logo, or the New York subway map.

If you are like me and you work in design, I encourage you to always remember the function and ask yourself, “What is it for?”

If you are a consumer of design or a purchaser of design you need to remember, you aren’t hiring an artist. You are hiring a master empathetic planner who plans exceptional communication on your behalf.

It’s not an easy job, and it takes a vast amount of knowledge of demographics, psychographics, business models, trends and more.

So, if you are needing to hire a designer, know up front that there is a process and nothing great is going to just get strung together. Depending on your project and your needs and ambitions, the planning may take a few hours, or it may take a few weeks, so be patient and be ready to accept that nothing is as easy as it looks, in fact the easier it looks, the more difficult it likely is and the ease is just a result of fabulous planning. Don’t take it for granted.

I hope this helps all of you out there a bit in your journey, and if you need design work and great planning, I am here for ya!

Jesse Barney

September 25, 2020