RE: Flexin'/ Jim Feedback

In terms of delivering bad design, I have similar experiences to Shannon – so I’ll go down that road in relation to Mo’s thread. I work with a lot of VPs that ALL want their input worked through in a design, whether it is an Ad, flow chart, proposal graphic, etc.  My marketing manager usually says the same thing as Shannon’s supervisor-- “give them what they want and let them see how bad their idea is for this project.” I, too, cringe when I hit the send button. To fight my designers remorse (when I have the time) I often send them exactly what they want and then what I think might work better. If I don’t have time, I try to gently say why their concept might not work and offer suggestions before laying out something completely different. Going through this process often allows us to come up with something that communicates the message much more clearly.  In situations like this and Shannon’s job, I think intentional bad design sheds light on the communication problems at hand and helps those who originated the request/designers to better understand exactly what they need in a final product.

I understand the “designing badly on purpose” route more so through word association brainstorming and sketching. But I spend so much time moving elements within my design program when I am actually sitting down in this phase of the design process, that perhaps I am going through the motions in a more fluid manner than designing a whole design poorly on purpose. 

Jim Feedback:

Jim I think this is coming together nicely. My only critique offhand is that each web page looks like a home page and none seem like an interior page – maybe changing the layout on some of the interior pages and offering more information might help to differentiate?

Re: Flexin'

At work, I've been struggling with the product managers' requests for designs because they are really, really bad. My boss, the creative manager, has worked at the company for over ten years and fully understands how to deal with these bad requests: send them what they want and let them figure it out themselves. It's worked pretty much every time, but as I'm laying out their ideas, I struggle to finalize it because I'm not ok with the results as a designer. I don't want people to associate my work with these designs.

This relates to Maurice's topic because while designing for bad ideas or bad clients, you can come up with better ideas as you go and potentially show those clients or product managers a better solution. We gain ideas as we work, so I agree that designing anything is better than designing nothing.

I came across this article: Creating Good Designs from Bad Design Ideas: Three Client Types and How to Handle Them. A few good tips I gained from reading this are:

• Remember, it takes two to tango, so when you’re given a bad design idea that you just can’t execute, don’t rush to blame the client, even if it seems justified. As a designer, ask yourself whether you have helped the situation (and your client) to the best of your abilities. If you have, and you still haven’t been able to overcome the bad idea, it probably means you should send them on their way. If you know that nothing good will come out of the project, then immediately step away, because there is no sense in putting yourself through unnecessary strife.
• ...if you see an opportunity to (gently) push the client in the right direction and get the project back on track, you should certainly go for it. You’ll likely get a lot of gratitude, stellar feedback, and glowing recommendations for going the extra mile.
• The client-designer relationship is like a marriage; both parties need to pull their weight in conceiving the design. Otherwise, someone is going to end being resentful, and the design is going to suffer greatly.

Project 1 Progress - REACH Youth Leagues

I am sorry I didn't post sooner, here is my progress ...and I am still trying to figure out Yik-Yak.

Flexing Design Muscles - Make sure you stretch first...

After seeing what was noted about building a bad design to help get your design muscles in line, I can believe that and it does make sense but I don't know if I would ever do it - Not make bad design but...

I know that there are some agencies where the management will attempt to make a game out of presenting creative little quandaries for the staff to work their way through, to help build the creative process, but this sounds more like a personal activity. I don't know that most of us might have the luxury of stepping that far out of the creative process to help get their creative minds' on the right path. It might be frowned upon in the workplace to try something like that.

Although, I could see how some might find designing badly could help them get back in line (but for all the badly laid-out car ads I prepared in previous years, it didn't seem to make me a better designer).

The one item noted that is so true, "It is better to have X bad ideas then none at all." 

I know that in the past I have been able to produce solid ideas based off some bad ones.

---

I know that some may say that I was able to produce because of XY and Z. I did this and then I produced that, which was outstanding work. Many famous rock stars have contributed their most successful work produced from the drugs they were taking. -- Top of my Head, Scott Weiland Stone Temple Pilots --

Additionally, a friend of mine, his father is an artist who primarily does oil painting, sometimes sculpture. For years he worked on his fine art career and he was a really good local artist. Although, he used alcohol to produce his work, but his constant drinking turned him into a violent person so he had to stop. Now he has hardly any passion to create and when he paints he feels it just isn't the same without the booz. A lot of these I believe can be just chalked up to superstition and excuses. Knowing my friends Dad, he is creative, he has the ability, he just wants the alcohol so badly he has to place a crutch on it to move on.

So they essentially used something physically bad, and negative to steer them in the direction of something productive. Do you think that this is the case? I think that these additional stimuluses can help us create (not endorsing the use of drugs or alcohol in your creative process - maybe after the semester) but I also know that man's will is so strong sometimes that we will find a way to accomplish something without having to go down a dark or obscure path.

Straight Flexin'

How do I flex my design muscles?

The idea of designing badly on purpose is intriguing. Since I identify more as a writer than a designer, I can draw a correlation using writing as an example. When I’m faced with a bout of writer’s block, facing a blank page or the insertion point on an unbesmirched document, sometimes the solution is to start spewing words onto the page, being fully aware of how badly they’re coming together. Sometimes it takes a few paragraphs to even figure out what I actually want to say, but I’ll at least have found a direction. Once I find my topic, the writing usually gathers a little panache and I can use that momentum to get most of my ideas down. Then I circle back and cut the fat. Usually whatever occurred before I located my muse gets snipped away, or worked into the body of my argument. 

That’s how I flex my writer’s muscles, but how do I flex my designer’s muscles? I’m not a strong designer yet, but to perpetuate the exercise analogy, I feel a good burn when I learn a new skill, or get better at working with a certain tool or program. Working in the lab, I’m confronted with questions from lab users struggling with things that I once struggled with, but now am able to teach. I often don't know the answers to their questions, and that’s when I get to flex. I’ll search for the solution and try to work through the problem with the student. The assignment gets completed, and we both add that arrow to our respective quivers. Just a few days ago I had three separate Photoshop dilemmas, all of which I was able to figure out with minimal effort. Photoshop is my weakest of the Creative Suite programs, but I don’t plan on being able to say that for too much longer. 

Another way to flex my design muscles is to seek out design work. At my job, we work with a lot of vendors who do the bulk of our art related tasks. I let my supervisors know early on that I was interested in working on design tasks and becoming a go-to in-house resource for those types of jobs. I still spend the majority of my time in Word and Excel, but I was able to work on the design templates for two different textbooks that will be published next year. On a side note, I’m the only person at the office with a Creative Cloud membership, and sometimes I’m asked to simply open files and backside them as idml files for the Production team, who still uses CS6. A simple task, but I think it can go toward building an argument that my membership costs should be covered by the company.

Finally, a good way to flex is to learn the keyboard shortcuts. These are invaluable tools not just with Design programs, but also with Microsoft Office. I can work a lot more efficiently by unlearning bad habits and retraining myself to do things more succinctly. This website is a helpful visual tool to show the keyboard shortcuts for the Creative Suite programs.

Flexing your design muscle

image via The next web

 While researching a blog topic I managed to come across an interesting article from 99u.com about designing badly on purpose. 

As a talented creative, you probably shudder at the thought of purposely designing something badly. Why would you possibly do such a thing, other than out of passive aggressiveness towards an infuriating client? (Bad idea.) UX content strategist Jerry Chao suggests that purposely designing badly can be a great tactic for conquering creative block:

There’s a big difference between having no good ideas, and no ideas at all. Chances are, the more bad ideas you have, the more pressure you apply to come up with good ideas. In these cases, the best way to beat designer’s block is to get all the bad ideas out of your system.

Try designing a mockup in which you make all the wrong decisions on purpose. You may find it strangely productive.

For starters, you’re exercising your design muscles a lot more than just staring at a blank screen: designing badly is better than not designing at all. On a deeper level, designing a purposefully bad mockup forces you to think critically on the same topics, but from a different perspective. If you can figure out the worst place to stick a call-to-action, for example, that will shed some light on the best place. This kind of productive distraction allows you to think about solutions without actually thinking about them. -Allison Stadd, 99u.com

image via The next web

I never thought of my initial design concepts as a tool to clear out all the noise, let alone designing badly on purpose. This topic took me in the direction of techniques used to flex your design muscles. I started to think back on taking Creative Concepts a few semesters ago, and exploring different brainstorming activity every class. We tried everything from word banks to drawing outside, eyes closed, with the pencil not leaving the paper until we were done.

Smashing Magazine suggest challenging yourself by designing with a theme everyday.

Actors rehearse their lines until they learn them perfectly. Musicians practice their songs until every note is just right. Athletes practice their particular sport so they can excel. As designers, why can’t we do the same? 

The articles list some examples with interviews of the creators.

Daily Drop Cap is Jessica Hische’s personal project: she designs a drop cap every day and makes her designs available for free download.

 Make Something Cool Every Day 2009 by Brock Davis.

Here is Brock's advice on designing.

What are some challenges associated with designing daily? 

Coming up with ideas I feel are original. I always strive for originality — it is almost impossible to attain but the effort often conjures interesting results. Another challenge is simply finding the time to do it. I have a full-time job in a creative field, so I have to separate my professional ideas from my personalideas. I have a family as well, so I tend to work late and think when my children are in bed. 

Do you guys have any activities that you use to flex your creative muscles, or have you seen any interesting techniques?

The road to Inspiration

After a period of initial (crappy) sketches and absorbing as much research as time allows, I go through period of over thinking, similar to what Don talked about. After taking a break, I look at my concepts from a client perspective and asks if I'm using the appropriate elements and principles.

I find that the more sketches I have, the less painful it is to create solutions that work.

Looking at current magazines for inspiration and tips keeps me headed on the right path.

Taking pictures of designs that I see on a day to day bases helps, and thinking about why it hits or misses also helps me to look at my own work.