Good design is functional, great design tells a story
There is one thing that separates great design from good design and that is the story the design tells. There are different levels of design. Nice design looks good. It’s aesthetic: pleasing to the senses. The next level is functional: the design solves a problem. But the apex of design is storytelling. If the design looks good and solves a problem, the designer is doing a good job. But if the designer managers to tell a story, design has the ability to change things.
Last week I bought a pair of shoes. Not just any pair, but a pair of Nike Air Max 90s. To me, these are one of the most iconic shoe designs ever. This opinion is infused with nostalgia. I was 14 when these shoes came out and to me they were the coolest thing. My parents didn’t agree so I never got to own a pair when I was a kid, which made the attraction even bigger. The shoes are one of the first designs of Tinker Hatfield. When he made the design for the Air Max, people thought he was crazy. He did something nobody had ever done before. He exposed the air sole that was embedded in the shoe. That created the iconic design that still looks as fresh today as it did 33 years ago. According to legend, it is the shoe that saved Nike. If you haven’t seen the episode of Abstract with Tinker Hatfield, do yourself a favor and watch that after reading this essay:
What is great about the design of the Nike Air Max is the fact that it tells a story. A story with multiple layers. On the first layer, it tells the story of the air sole. An invention like an air sole to make walking or running better can seem kind of abstract. It’s basically technology that is hidden. Exposing the technology by making the air sole visible makes the story of the air sole crystal clear. It launches the whole Nike Air story that still lives on today and has manifested in many forms. Even if the air sole is not exposed, everybody knows what is going on inside the shoe, everybody understands the concept of the air sole. The Nike Air Max also tells a story about radical innovation that can determine the course of a company. Tinker was ridiculed and laughed at for this design. It broke the mold of what people thought a running shoe looked like. First response is laughter. But it turned out to create a whole new category of shoe design. By breaking the mold, it changed the shoe design industry.
Another design favorite of mine tells the same story. It’s the Ducati Monster. Same story, when it’s designer, Miguel Galluzzi, designed the monster in 1993, people were also shocked. Legend has it, the owners of Ducati found it so horrible, they called a monster. Hence the name. But this design also changed the course of the company and the bike industry. It became the best selling bike for Ducati and basically saved the company. The design also tells a story about riding a motorcycle. It tells a story about the pureness of riding. There is nothing on the bike that doesn’t need to be on it. The design started from a race bike but Miguel stripped it until there is nothing left to strip and he ended up with the purest bike, a naked bike. This created a whole new category of motorcycle: performance bikes with no frills. Less is more. Pureness. Back to basics.
These are two of my favorite designs that tell a story about radical design and storytelling with design. These designs show two important skills for designers that aim to create great design: courage and storytelling. These designs look great and do the job they were designed to but what separates them from good design is their ability to tell a story. They make a product vision come alive. Just by looking at these designs, you can hear a story about basic things like walking, running and riding a bike. Just by looking at these designs, you can imagine what it would be to walk on air and to ride at high speed with nothing to protect you from the elements. It’s as close as we can get to flying as humans without boarding a plane.
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