[Sigia-l] My Toolbox is full...now what?

[Listera]

Welie, Martijn van:

> So what are the secrets of creating good/great stuff under real life
> circumstances?

Knowing the limitations of your tools, colleagues, yourself, clients, users,
etc.

At this point in my life, for instance, I know exactly how long a
process/task will take to the day and I don't miss a deadline. However, I
also know that there's always a period where I seem to be doing absolutely
nothing. The client would normally get alarmed at this, so I explicitly warn
that I have an incubation period, when things I had been absorbing/observing
since the beginning get percolated and suddenly burst out. Even the most
complex, multi-million dollar projects I designed just 'came to me' in a few
hours. I can't predict when that will happen, but I know it happens that way
and I make sure that there's time allotted for my incubation.

Now, when I present the result of that 'burst' I make sure that I deliver
sufficient "shock and awe". The proposed design has enough
fidelity/believability/scope that the client sees the whole vision behind
it, with as little ambiguity as possible. I simply assume the client is
incapable of putting the pieces together, if I were to show it piecemeal. I
don't take the chance, hence the shock and awe.

I also don't waste my time with people who are not in a position to
contribute to or impact design, even though everybody on the "team" usually
has an opinion on architectural/visual matters.

For me, design is the discipline of triage. One needs to be strong and
authoritative enough to be able to say, No!

Ziya
Nullius in Verba