Design for Life

 

Good design gives me warm fuzzies. It makes my eyes light up and my heart feel fuller. I am highly visual (I like books with pictures), and consider good design to be an easy differentiator in today's world. Look at Apple and the iMac, the iPod, and now the iPhone. Beautiful, functional, and highly profitable. Documents and buildings can have great design, too. Design is a bit of our personalities. Do we have fun, or are we all "business"?

 

When I was at McKim & Creed, I couldn't stand the gray walls we had, so I painted them using a light yellow and orange colorwash (it was tasteful and not intense) and people around the office started stopping by to just sit and feel good. Then other offices started getting some color as their occupants saw the difference a color could make to their work environment.

 

I've seen some really neat office spaces, and some rather drab ones. I love color and twists and creative approaches to connecting people within a space. Ultimately, the design of a work space can determine how successfully people can interact and move the company forward. If the space is uninspiring, the people may be uninspired as well.

 

Product design is often done by the technical wonks or a committee of people who don't understand design. Look at Google and Apple. Both have found ways to keep simplicity at the heart of their products. Lots of power behind the screen, but both epitomize the term "simple elegance." Of course, they both rake in lots of dough to boot...  One of the great icons of my way of thinking is the Staples EASY button. It embodies the concepts of simplicity for customers. When you make it easy for customers, you make it profitable for your company. I often bring my Easy button with me to meeting to keep people focused on what matters. It's also a great marketing tool when talking about our solutions.

 

The design of a business is also a representation of creative thought. Has the business been designed with an eye to client care, coordinated systems and processes, effective production, employee retention and development, and consistent quality output? A business is the ultimate design project because it requires knowledge and skills in many areas to create a cohesive design product. And then the design has to change to meet new needs without dissolving into a disjointed mess. The collaborative, messy nature of business is what makes it such a fun expression of creativity. It's never perfect, but can be optimized. Business is a living organism with heart, soul, and personality. You get to choose what those will be and then convince others to help you build it. How cool.

 

If you look hard enough, you may also see some of my art, photography, pottery, logos, and websites floating around the world (see my gallery). I've done a lot of work for various companies in developing corporate identities, helping them with graphic design, websites, and even multimedia kiosks.

 

If you want help with your design project, let me know.

 

Here are some of the websites my Forrest Consulting Group company has built or updated: