This is a the written version of a talk I gave at UX Camp Brighton 2014… I would imagine it differs greatly from what I actually said.
Brand space has never been more accessible.
Consumers’ time has never been more scarce.
What does this mean for the way we work?
I have been developing a short worksheet over the passed year or so for certain jobs. Its purpose is to collate the different influential factors on a rebranding or redesign of content brands – in this instance one thats sits on multiple platforms. It I have been using it in lieu of user research but I think it would sit well with it or before it on many of my more recent jobs. The most recent time I used it I felt I didn’t have a strong enough starting point before I undertook the trust part of the work. We shred the document between the key figures of the job and I quickly got back this great picture of where we needed to go.
Unit Editions, design book publishers, hosted a talk to celebrate the success of their amazing book Manuals 1: Design & Identity Guidelines. The panel consists of Sean Perkins (North), John Lloyd (Ex-Lloyd Northover) and Tony Brook (Spin/Unit). The discussion was hosted by Adrian Shaughnessy.
It opened a tribute to Massimo Vignelli who passed away earlier in the week. In the winter he had written the forward for the book and provided much encouragement and excitement about the project. Some of his quotes set the tone for the evening including:
“Anyone who says that a manual is a creative straight jacket is a moron. Without a manual you will end up speaking a dialect. A good manual allows you to speak a language” Massimo Vignelli
This is a discussion I had over recent weeks with my colleague Dan Ichimoto of Heaps Magazine. A culture magazine made in New York and published on iPad for a Japanese audience. He wanted to know what was going on in London with publishing for digital mags.
Or, why user-focused questions are the only way to make successful products
What could content brands be asking themselves about their customers before, and whilst, making and iterating their products?
I work with both large and small brands and I think that design that focuses on the user is neither new nor the exclusive territory of big brands with research budgets and huge dev teams. Every scale of operation can make a picture of its customers and their needs. What is important is that teams are analytical and involved in ways of thinking about the situations in which people buy and use their products to be successful.
Listening to Mike Meiré talk last night at the Istituto Marangoni was both wildly entertaining and strangely down to earth. It covered (almost) everything an art director deals with. To hear someone who operates in that sphere of both client and creative say things that you and your colleagues have said or – more regrettably – should of said countless times was quite inspiring:
I was brought right back to art college ethic of “make lots of things quickly and see what happens” yesterday at the fantastic Dennis Hack Day. Craft, analysis and iteration can come later – there has to be a place in the process where you just do stuff quickly and see what things you make. Yesterday was just that – amplified and accelerated.
“In visual perception a colour is almost never seen as it really is — as it physically is. This fact makes colour the most relative medium in art.” Joseph Albers
Every now and then you get given a picture of a great leap of progress; there was a time before say, Picasso or hot metal, and then there is everything that came after it. Listening to Adrian Shaughnessy’s talk on FHK Henrion (St Bride Printing Library, 15 January) he pitches him as a pioneer of many things but I was particularly drawn to him leading the way in system based design. I was trying to imagine “the time before” but in this instance I couldn’t. I am not sure we can call it design if it is not system based.
It was very nice to see one of my projects up on stage at the EDO talk this week – Cyclist Magazine App. It was being used an example of how well considered design can create strong templates in HTML products. Or as Ant Miller of Clearleft said in his post: “It’s structure heavy, technically, but this is just a scaffold for some really beautiful design.” Thanks! That is what I want people to think when they see my products. (http://clearleft.com/thinks/pointstopixelsatedo/)
ideas/forms/functions 