Design Writing

Strunk & White get a ticking off

This is grammar geeky but might interest a designer writer or two out there.

Found: Andy Polaine on design writing

Lot's of agreeing going on in this piece on design writing by Andy Polaine. It's just a bit more evidence for my hunch that writing and design have a lot to do with each other.

Forum AID magazine: Stories that sell

The Swedish design magazine Forum AID has an interesting piece on storytelling in Design. It's an nice piece but the examples didn't really cut it for me. Shooting a table with a Magnum 44, getting immigrants to graffiti chairs, making a lamp look a bit like a Moomin, none of that sounds like storytelling to me. What it really suggested is that designers haven't been using storytelling at all.

I'm less and less interested in design/art pranks and would hate that to be confused with an exploration of story in design. How can a piece of design be given a beginning, middle and end? How can it be understood as a character? In what ways could dramatic narrative be thought into design? These are questions that haven't been answered yet.

Still I did like 'reasons for storytelling' in the article:

1. Stories create recognition around a company
2. Stories build relationships with a client
3. Stories give a feeling of confidence and a sense of 'togetherness' for personnel
4. Stories create relationships built on involvement, participation, support and confidence
5. Stories create a feeling of solidarity and security in a time characterized by financial and political concerns

For this last one the author, Bo Madestrand, comments that stories "symbolise a 'slow food' mentality within design, an ideological resistance to the news-driven consumer frenzy and use of resources." He also points out that they make the designer visible and are required by the changing role of the designer from pure technique to marketing and communication.

There's lots to say about this but I'll restrict myself to a couple of observations. First, I'm not sure that the designer should be so visible. For storytelling in design to work, it would need to be inherent in the design processes and in the design itself. If the designer is the story it's fine (though getting tiresome) but not really the point. I'm much more keen on the idea that it's a slow-movement tendency in design. To me, this is a return to quality and human scale in which story could play an important role.

Words to watch

A quick post this time. I wrote before about the dubious use of the word iconic and before that about the death of the designer adjective. Well to be positive, here two words that do fit with our current wtf?-zietgiest:

1: Community

2: Co-operation

I'm expecting to see these two words play out in a lot of contexts over the coming months, design included. 

Iconic

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

So I heard Martin Skibsted of Biomega talk the other week about his new book Instant Icon that describes how it's possible to manufacture iconic designs though a particular process (though I didn't learn how, the answers are in the book apparently). But it's the word 'icon' that I'm pondering today.

I'm contrasting this desire to produce design icons with this rant against the misuse of the icon word in More Intelligent Life magazine by Jonathan Meades. I'm not usually in the camp of correct usage of words because I believe that language evolves through use. Still, it's becoming a lazy way of writing about something. Is everything that is original or lasting iconic? No.

Do read the book though, as it looks like a winner.

From metaphor to utility

I learn that R/GA was crowned interaction design agency of the year again by AdWeek. Not in itself very interesting I admit, but the reason why is pretty interesting. They got the gong for using technology to make the consumer's life easier and more interesting and not for creating warm and fuzzy feelings about a brand. Citing the Nike+ concept, AdWeek see a new model for advertising away from interruption and attention grabbing to providing things people might actually want to engage with.  They call it a move from metaphor to utility.

I'm interested in this idea as a writer/researcher/designer/whatever, because it suggests a new kind of communication. It's a communication in which actions speak louder than words (or images). It's an interesting idea. And one that makes communication more a design challenge.

Natalia Ilyin on passion

Natalia Illyin is one of my favourite design writers. Here's one of my favourite pieces she did for Metropolis:

http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20070518/enough-with-it

It's about the misuse of the word passion. We all have these little bugbears. Mine is the word solutions. It's so common in the design world to talk about providing solutions when really you're providing graphics or ethnography or a medical device. Design solutions sound limp and probably something that we can all do without. 

Design Writing Poster

I love this of course. It's by Mig Reye, who I hope doesn't mind me posting the image. 

How to communicate architecture

I was in the library yesterday which had a display of an architectural project. It was the usual sort of thing: boards showing the plans in different elevations and then a model. And as usual it was pretty awful.

The trouble is that architects have their own visual language. It's not shared. When architects look at floorplans, they can see cathedrals. The rest of us just see the floorplans and we don't understand them very well either. So this is why this presentation from Danish architects BIG is so refreshing.

They are actually communicating and doing it in a fun way too. Take a look. It immediately opens up new kinds of architectural presentations. Think about the kind of interactive experiences that are now possible. And all of this reminds me of Archigram who developed new architectural languages back in the 60s. It's good to see a new approach again.

Notebook battle: Moleskin vrs Field Notes

If you're anything like me, you'll carry a Moleskin notebook wherever you go. I really like the storytelling—that elegant little note that comes with every purchase. It's a great product with a little extra. All of which makes their website so disappointing. It's nasty looking and really fails to give space to all their fans (check Flickr). Compare their site to Field Notes. That's got a relevant design, a friendly tone-of-voice and a blog that shows they're excited by what they're doing. Most of this wouldn't fit Moleskin but they could try a bit harder. And it's odd, given how they get the experience so right elsewhere.