Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Devil's advocate on bullshitting?

I kind of disagree with the whole bullshitting theory. Yeah, sometimes you have to bullshit a few things that were intuitive decisions in your designs, but I think for the most part, as a designer, you make decisions for legitimate reasons and you can easily defend them. You used blue because it's an airline and you wanted to symbolize the sky, you used a script font because it's a wedding invitation and that's traditional and appropriate, you used a sepia toned photo to show antiquity for a 50 year reunion, etc.
I think, as designers, we solve problems, and we use creativity and logic to solve those problems. We're not Jackson Pollock saying, I wanted to drip paint there because it felt right, no explanation needed. Graphic design is not art. It is finding a creative solution for a problem for a client, and if a client is paying you money to find a solution, he/she probably wants to hear why you made those choices and hopefully you have a good explanation.

p.s. Although I have to say, the end of the article with the "Ahm-peere" font cracked me up. 
So I guess every once and awhile bullshit is necessary, especially with difficult clients.

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