“Good design makes a product understandable — It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product clearly express its function by making use of the user’s intuition. At best, it is self-explanatory.” — Dieter Rams

I Am Not A Writer

I am not a writer. And to be honest, when we received the task of writing a blog post every week I was a tad overwhelmed. But with a deep breath and a little contemplation, I realized that this could be one of the most beneficial things I do all year here. Being a student and a designer, articulating my ideas to others has been my biggest struggle. I find myself talking in circles and using insignificant hand gestures to try and get my point across. My vocabulary is anything but vast, and I know my grammar could use some work. However, if I have learned anything in the past couple months it is how quickly I find my knowledge of the design world and knowledge of myself expanding.

design is communication

When it all boils down, design is communication. It is a tool we use, amongst others, to share information, ideas, and opinions to one another. Writing and design are just two different languages we can use to convey information to the world. When you start to understand how to manipulate these languages for the correct audience, you can then start to understand how to communicate best. I want to be able to understand my craft better, and why I choose to do certain things when it comes down to the visuals. Don’t get me wrong, I love creating pretty things just for the heck of it, but if I can’t create meaningful design as well, then whats the point.

My process now involves sketching and bottling all my ideas in my head. I make invisible connections between thought points, hoping they come out the way I want in my design. As you guessed it this isn’t always the case. I believe that this task of writing every week can help me to understand the way I think. It can help me understand my design process, and access the best way to start creating meaningful design. So here I go. This piece was probably a bit rough to read, but I promise it will get better. I will be a writer, and in result, a great designer.