My Philosophy of Design

A little bit of forethought goes a long way.

In my mind, the words Design, Plan, and Strategy are all synonymous. Only the connotation and usage vary. Design exists to fulfill goals, specifically communication goals. So before I start any design project I always try to define:

• what I am communicating
• to whom is it being communicated

In other words, the message and the target audience. And then, having determined the desired outcome, I try to work out how to get there from where I start. I think that if you don’t use this process, you might produce something pretty and it might even say what it needs to, but only by accident. It’s for this reason that I include comments with all my pieces. I believe that knowing the intended audience and/or communication goals are key to understanding and evaluating design.

I also believe that if you don’t happen to be in the target audience, you may not be able to decipher the message. 45 year olds don’t “get” skateboarding lingo and 10 year olds don’t care about mortgage terminology.

Good design speaks all languages, but perhaps not all at the same time.