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I’ll admit, I had a hard time wrapping my brain around this “Thinking Wrong” concept. As a perpetual creature of habit (read: hardhead), I just didn’t get it when John Bielenberg first proposed the idea to me. Most of us follow daily routines. We can’t help it—it’s ingrained in us at a young age. I’m amazed by the precision of my daughter’s daily rituals, and she’s only two! Thinking wrong forces you to break out of your regular processes to come up with unexpected solutions.

I worked closely with Bielenberg and his partners at San Francisco-based C2, Erik Cox and Greg Galle, to develop much of the content for this issue. C2 has championed the “Think Wrong” approach in its work, and Bielenberg has carried it further with the Project M[entor] program he heads up from his digs on the East Coast. C2 developed guidelines on this process and included some exercises for STEP. See if you can break free of your right-thinking habits (“From Right to Wrong to Right Again,” page 48).

We tested these practices out on Clive Piercy, David Salanitro, and DJ Stout as they vied for the cover design along with C2. The designers were asked to keep a journal and document their think wrong journey. It wasn’t a picnic, according to Piercy who became quite agitated with the process: “I understand Bielenberg’s way of doing things, and there’s something charming about that, but I was against it. ... In the end, you’re trying to make something for somebody that you hope they like in some way.” (“What’s wrong with this cover?” page 38)

Tiffany Meyers revisits some M&Co. alumni who have gone on to carve out their own niches since the famed studio and its founder Tibor Kalman have passed. Stephen Doyle, Alexander Isley, Emily Oberman, and Scott Stowell reminisce about their days at M&Co. and “the just exactly not quite right” way of doing things that made the studio so famous (“Wrongness in the Walls: M&Co. Remembered,” page 54).

If you didn’t get a chance to see Bill Strickland, founder of the Manchester Bidwell Corporation (MBC), speak at the National AIGA Conference last fall (he brought most people to tears and everyone to their feet for a standing ovation), here’s your opportunity to see what the hubbub was about. MBC and its subsidiaries are world-class facilities that provide training to those down on their luck in Pittsburgh’s toughest neighborhoods, and turn them into productive, self-confident citizens. This model is so successful, it’s being duplicated in other U.S. cities (“Social Entrepreneurship + Good Design,” page 94).

Also in this issue, “nice guy” Sean Adams interviews “bad boy” James Victore, and discovers he’s really a sweet guy with a badass design reputation that has served him well (“Q&A,” page 70).

Terry Lee Stone follows up on the design initiatives that sprang up after the hurricanes hit the Gulf Coast. Did designers’ relief efforts make a difference? (“Designers in Action,” page 62) Airstream teamed up with Nissan Design America to create a silver bullet for adventurous roadsters—this isn’t your parents’ Airstream (“Branding by Design,” page 78).

Lava Graphic Design in Amsterdam provides a friendly, open atmosphere to clients and employees, which in turn promotes healthy working relationships (“Content is Served,” page 86). I hope all this wrong thinking inspires you to take the road less traveled in your next project. Ultimately, I can’t say the “wrongest” cover design was selected for this issue. Did we choose the wrong right cover or the right wrong cover? Read about the controversy behind the scenes.