How Design Changed My Perspective on Life
Design and Interior or Interior Design — that was pretty much all of my understanding about the word design. Then, a call and an interview later, I found myself in the world of design — not just interior, exterior as well and a whole lot more than that — asked to weave words that would make sense and give the single word of design more meaning.
That wasn’t easy, because coming from a non-design background, it was always going to be difficult to, first, understand the concept that is design and relate that with my “writing ability” and bring out coherent sentences that makes sense in the context.
Here’s a snippet of how the first few days working in design went for me.
Graphic designer: So, I think the confluence is missing here. There is the red there, but without the yellow, it just doesn’t make sense, because what is the point of blood without sunshine.
Me (thinking): OK, I don’t think confluence was used rightly there. And what on earth do blood and sunshine have to do with each other. Weird….
Second graphic designer: What if we bring a little blue into it and make it seem like the blood is disappearing into the water just as the sun sets? That’s the symbolism we are looking for here, right?
First graphic designer: Yeah, I think that would work. It makes sense to me now.
Me (thinking again): Nope, it makes no sense. Why on earth is the blood “disappearing”? And do they mean drowning into the sea? Again, what on earth does the Sun have to do with all this? Oh My God, is this how designers work? What have I got myself into!
Second graphic designer, looking at me with a smile: I can see what you’re thinking. That we’re crazy. Well, we kind of are, but once we explain, you won’t find all of this as crazy.
He then explains the concept. And voila, it all makes sense — the blue sea, the red blood and the yellow sunshine, the disappearing (it actually was drowning, this is where content guys like me come) and the sun setting. And just like that I was hooked.
Soon, I was the one saying stuff like, “No, without the green to show nature, Donald Duck and Thanos coming together and discussing if Lionel Messi is better than Cristiano Ronaldo makes no sense.”
For me design, from being a niche, random word, turned into an all-encompassing “feeling.” Yup, design is, now, a feeling.
A feeling capable of changing my mood.
A feeling capable of making me think.
A feeling capable of bringing out my creativity.
A feeling capable of putting that brain of mine (albeit not that big) to work, a lot more than I usually do.
A feeling that creates an even bigger feeling, which makes you chuckle or smile and say “oh, that’s smart, I see what the designer did there. That’s really clever.”
And as a content expert, a feeling that gives me an opportunity to bring words to life through design.
As a man of words, that is pretty damn cool.
Of course, my learnings on design is far from over, indeed, it is just beginning. Saying that you’re an expert in the concept is like saying you have walked every single inch of the world — because that is how prevalent design is.
There is design everywhere, every single place.
You cannot open your eyes (or close them) and not see something that has been designed.
Heck, even the entire universe is a design. Who or what designed it? Well, we’ll leave that argument for some other time.
Therefore, to understand that design exists pretty much everywhere, in itself, was enlightening.
I mean, of course, I knew there was design, but not design as I see design now, you see?
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that this blog in itself also has a design (yeah, yeah, I know, that doesn’t make me a designer, pipe down guys!). That’s how prevalent it is and I know it is now, which makes it all the more overwhelming, because knowing that design exists everywhere is a little unsettling.
Because, everywhere I go, I look for design, I look to see what they mean, what the designer might have been thinking when they designed it. What the plan was, why it is what it is?
And that, frankly, can get a little exhausting.
There was a phase where I saw design in everything and tried to decode every single one of them.
Thankfully, that phase has been, well, phased out, and I am now, happy, just looking at a design and giving a smile if I find it interesting or shaking my head if it is not exactly the greatest one you will ever see.
However, just the awareness that design is everywhere has made a difference. It has opened up a path in writing that I would, perhaps, have never even envisaged.
Design is such a ridiculously simple, yet complicated word/feeling. And that’s what makes it so alluringly beautiful.
So, here’s (raises glass) to Design….may you continue to invoke those feelings.
