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As Tiffany Meyers observes in her overview of the 100 winners, one can’t peg 2009 as the year of any specific color or typographic convention. But the winning projects are reflective of today’s increasingly diverse design discipline. In fact, one has to wonder if there is any longer such a thing as a design discipline—in light of today’s fast-changing and even amorphous practice, the word discipline seems a little out of place.
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From Right to Wrong to Right Again (cont'd) |
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2. FIND YOUR STARTING POINT. Once we were clear about STEP’s aspirations, we sketched a typical problem-solving process we might
use to design a cover. We chose “Generate concepts and design solutions” as our starting point for thinking wrong because it was the single
point that offered the greatest potential to use this exercise to move STEP closer to its aspirations.
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STEP defined the opportunity for
C2 to design the cover of this issue.
Before getting started we pressed
STEP to articulate their aspirations
and desired results.
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C2 had the greatest influence here.
What are some other possible indicators
of a good place to start?
Ask yourselves:
- Where are we spending the least
amount of time?
- Where are we spending the least
amount of money?
- Where are we relying on routine processes
and checklists?
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STEP’s editor, art director, and
publisher would select the cover.
We considered providing them
with a counterintuitive selection
tool, but assumed that they would
not use it. Ultimately we asked the outside designers
to use it instead. |
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STEP prints and distributes the
magazine.
Our idea to feature all four cover designs
and let buyers vote with their
dollars was embraced by STEP in
theory, but was ruled out based on
the assumption that it would be too
difficult to get the publisher to sign
off on the idea. |
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STEP will monitor sales performance
of the issue.
We can all gauge the impact on
STEP’s aspirations by monitoring
the conversations provoked by
this issue. |
 3. CREATE A PICTURE OF THE STATUS QUO. The status quo is Public Enemy No. 1. It’s the trap we fall into when we start with the assumption
that we already know how to solve the problem. Whether it’s the best answer or not. Whether it brings our client closer to his aspirations
or not. Thinking wrong starts with a clear picture of the status quo: To fight your enemy, you have to be able to recognize it.
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