Big Ideas
What are the best design practices for happy designers and happy clients? Kirk Lunsford University of Colorado Denver February 25, 2018
What’s the big idea? I’ve been a designer for half of my life. If we count the time I spent since the sixth grade drawing the new Air Jordan’s, perhaps I could say most of my life. I’ve explored design in many different industries from toys, shoes, products, and games. Almost seven years ago I began my journey into the field of theme design. My position requires an intersection of several different fields including design fields of graphic, industrial, interior, and instructional. It also involves art and project management. The complexities of the work has kept me interested, motivated, and sometimes exhausted. I’m always looking for new ways to approach my work to simplify the complex nature of it. Over the course of my short career in the theme business, two recurring questions constantly present themselves: 1. How can we streamline our work to make it more cohesive and faster? 2. How can we satisfy our clients with successful products? It may not be possible to truly answer both of these questions; I’m sure many have tried. It’s probably best understood as an ever-evolving answer depending on many factors. Instead of trying to answer these head on, I can find some methods and techniques that might improve the processes and products. Ultimately, everyone wants to be happy with the process of their work and the finished results. Therefore the big idea for me at this point in my career is to answer the question: What are the best design practices for happy designers and happy clients? Before we can go down the path of enlightenment in search of happiness, it’s important to define what career happiness means. I’ve discovered some resources relevant to this inquiry based on happiness in my career. I can certainly say, I’ve had a broad range of emotions in my day to day work as a designer, not all of which involve happiness. However, as Scott Dinsmore would say, “What is the work you can’t not do?” in his Tedtalk about finding happiness in your career. I’ve discovered design is the work I can’t not do. However not any specific niche design, but design in a more holistic sense. That’s why theme design is so interesting because it offers opportunities to be creative in multi-faceted design disciplines like graphic, industrial, interior, and instructional design. All of which working together creates an enriched experience unlike anything else.