The Culture of Design
February/March 2015
ONE THOUGHT FROM… TOM UGLOW Creative director, Google Creative Lab Sydney
It is hard to imagine a more transformational time for a designer, in a period that drives us to design simpler, faster, more organic ways to interact with all the information that we gather around us every day. The process has not yet reached its peak, either; we know this because everything about the internet annoys us. We know it can be better – it’s the designer’s curse. What we see today as being huge and difficult and complex simply won’t be huge and complex for the next generation. Take phones for example – they seem so ubiquitous, yet your smartphone is essential for the distribution of information because of convenience, not because of design. In itself, a phone does not improve on what other ‘things’ used to do any more than the personal computer did. Before that we had physical books, cameras, maps and newspapers – the phone has aggregated all of these in digital forms mainly because it is the easiest ‘device’ to connect to the internet. But we are only beginning to design for smartphones instead of web pages. As designers, we should be exploring the way these bits and bytes that connect us to the internet are starting to appear in any device, or on any surface. Watch for when we can log in to our cars, or a cash machine, a shop window, or a tree… We often muddle up the technology with the change agent. The computer is not the innovation (although it is pretty cool), nor is the mobile phone; they are just technological conduits to information that we have unlocked. It is access to that information that is so intoxicating. So disruptive. We have moved from a time of static information, held in books and libraries, to a period of digital information, held in digital folders on sites and servers. Now we are moving into a period of fluid information where our children will expect to be able to access anything, anywhere, at any time. Just like switching on a light bulb. (And, of course, they will value it less, just as you probably don’t value being able to switch on a light bulb any more.) So how do we imbue the real world with all this digital noise, and not mess it up? How do the things that we love change with the internet? How do they work? How are they better? The answers to these questions will be down to every type of designer to address. It is they who get to decide whether we can live in a reality mediated by screens or if we can design a world that uses touch, gesture, sound and sensors to satisfy our insatiable urge for information. It is design that will help us manage that urge as well. This really is the most exciting of times for designers.
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Tom Uglow
desktopmag.com.au
Illustration by Kelly Thompson
Interview
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February/March 2015
The Culture of Design
Below: Interior detail of Motel MexicolaŠ
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Mash: Psych Out
Neon Lobster detail at The Happy Motel
desktopmag.com.au
We sent some sincere, serious questions about design psychology to James Brown, design director at Adelaide’s unique and anomalous studio, Mash. He sent some sincere, but very un-serious responses. It was not the exchange we were expecting to have, but we are really glad it happened.
Feature
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Sam Maguinness
Illustration by Daniel H Gray
desktopmag.com.au
One particular craftsman, Ernez Dhondy, specialises in UX (user experience). He has long been using traditional research techniques to demonstrate UXs online. His process imitates life and marks him as an example of the type of creative that digital requires. “Great design can’t happen,” he explains, “until we understand the people we are designing for, and the space they inhabit when using our product.” Simply, in order to create crafted solutions, you need people that are equal parts passionate and pedantic about the possibilities of digital. Those who recognise craft does not nibble at a job, but swallows it whole. We’re already seeing the effects of such people upon the industry. With innovations like Google Material, language is grounded in tactile reality and inspired by the study of paper and ink. Only three years ago, Google was an ugly brand. Gradually it has redesigned and reimagined every little detail, which has completely reinvigorated the user experience. These innovations allow us to link our past experience of print with the new digital world. As Moment’s Payne says, they ease the transition.
But with technology continuing to develop so quickly, how do you maintain ‘craft’? I believe, again, this is due to passion and belief. Craft means relentless refinement; it inherently has all the classic principles of good design. “The emphasis of ‘craft’ in our digital department has created a new benchmark for quality that has become central to new business development, and a driver of innovation across the agency,” adds Howatson. “Most importantly, the team has motivated other departments to rise to the same ambition of uncompromised quality, driving an agency-wide cultural agenda.” Craft is vital today because we are the generation that is living through phenomenal transition, yet we still reference the tactility of the past. It will be down to the next generation of designers to view the screen the predominant consumable material ripe for invention, and evolve the design of the future.
On Screen
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The Culture of Design
February/March 2015
EMILY OBERMAN’S WITTY STUDIO Partner, Pentagram
The Practice
Before Pentagram, and before I started my own design practice, No. 17 with Bonnie Siegler, I worked for Tibor Kalman at M&Co. for six years. This is where I learned about collaborative environments, about ‘the best idea wins’, and about laughter in the studio. It was a very open space, there were no closed doors and often projects would involve the contribution of everyone in the studio. Pentagram is set up as a series of small design studios within one company. Each partner has their own team and is responsible for their own P&L (profit and loss), budgets and overheads, while the overarching structure allows for collaboration between partners, and a common database for everything – from vendors to snacks. It is within this structure that I like to be as collaborative as possible, and encourage a witty environment. My goal is for the designers I work with to feel like they own their project. When working with a team, it isn’t about executing an idea that I have – in fact, it is often me loving an idea that they have, and working with them to flesh it out. It’s ‘the best idea wins’, so that, in the end, everybody who has worked on the project feels ownership of it. I want everyone to be excited and proud about the work they are doing, so I search for ways to make that part of the process. I like to do wall crits when we are designing logos, where the team talks it through as a group. I like designers to work in pairs or small teams, so you have the potential of different combinations of ideas depending on who is working with whom, for interesting and new perspectives on each project. I come from the school of encouragement, rather than fear or disappointment. I like laughter. I like a smart team with humour and wit. Before I experienced that with Tibor, I learned it from my parents. I grew up laughing a lot and I want that in the work that we do, and the way we feel as a team.
Pictured: Pentagram’s New York studio.
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