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Gaining Approval for a Design
Solution
By Peter L. Phillips, Design Strategy Consultant
An excerpt from the book, Creating the Perfect Design
Brief, by Peter L. Phillips, published by Allworth Press with
the Design Management Institute.
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| Peter Phillips |
The process of gaining approval for a design solution is among
the most painful and frustrating processes design groups face on
a routine basis. I certainly suffered through these approval meetings
for a number of years early in my career in corporate design. Finally,
I had to face the fact that I needed to find a way to take the pain,
frustration, and suffering away. At first, I thought it might be
a hopeless quest—the impossible dream, if you will. I recalled
that in school, I had one graphic design professor who, at the time,
I thought was particularly harsh with this approval process. Finally
I realized that, in fact, he wasn’t harsh at all—he
was just preparing us for our careers!
He would assign a design problem for us to work through. On the
appointed day when our solutions were to be presented, he would
have us put our work along the ledge of the blackboard in the classroom.
Without saying a word, he would walk along the board, and either
leave your work where it was, or throw it on the floor! Actually,
almost everybody’s work ended up on the floor. He would then
turn to the class, and say, “Everything on the floor fails.
If you think your work hasn’t failed, pick it up, put it back
up on the ledge, and tell me and the class why it doesn’t
fail.” Of course, most of us picked up our work, and tried
to defend it. After all, we didn’t want to fail. While we
desperately tried to defend our work, the professor kept interrupting
by saying; “You’re too proud and defensive of your clever
design solution, put it back on the floor!”
What he was teaching us is that design should not be defended. Design
should not be a success because we thought so. Rather, we only got
to keep our work up on the ledge when we could clearly explain why
our solution met the objectives of the assignment. For some reason,
it took me a few years to really understand what this professor
had taught us. It was always too easy in school to talk a lot about
how clever (creative, etc.) we had been with an assignment. Other
design students knew what we were talking about, and were often
very supportive. This is not the case in the corporate world. The
other nondesign-trained stakeholders, particularly those who have
the authority to approve—or disapprove—a design solution,
are not cognizant of all the design techniques we know. They only
know whether they like it or not.
The particular professor I am referring to was actually quite unique
in his approach. What he was doing is certainly not the norm in
most design classrooms today.
I have had the privilege of attending and speaking at a few HOW
Magazine design conferences. At the HOW conferences they devote
one evening to an event called, “The Student Showcase.”
The organizers of the conference invite area design school students
who are in their last year of study to bring their portfolios and
display their work for all of the conference attendees. I really
look forward to this annual event. I am often amazed at the talent
and ability displayed by these students.
I attended one of these Student Showcase events and spotted one
student whose work was particularly impressive. The young man was
a graphic design student and had a large display of posters and
brochures he had designed. As I approached the table where he was
presenting his portfolio, I overheard him explaining one of his
brochures to an attendee of the conference. With a great deal of
excitement and intensity, the young man explained that on the first
spread he had introduced an emotional experience. On the next spread,
he had enhanced this experience by adding bold colors and avant-garde
typographic treatments. Finally, he explained, he combined all of
these design elements to bring the brochure to an exciting, emotional
climax!
What this student was doing was explaining the design techniques
he had considered and used to create what he believed to be a visually
stunning piece. To another designer, his work was indeed, visually
stunning. However, if he had used that kind of thinking in making
a presentation of a brochure to a non-design trained CEO or marketing
executive, he would have been in big trouble.
Let me assure you, I am not trying to belittle this student. He
was doing what he was used to doing in design school. In design
school, we present our work to fellow design students and design
teachers. It seems normal to present design, well, as design. Unfortunately,
this doesn’t work in the corporate world. The people we will
present design solutions to in the business world don’t understand—or
appreciate—the power of using negative space, bold color palettes,
or unique typographic styles brilliantly. After we leave design
school, we have to learn to present design solutions for final approval
by non-design business managers in an entirely new way.
The key is not to try to defend design solutions by talking about
design elements, but to present the results of the design solution
vis-à-vis the objective of the project. It is up to us, the
designers, to point out why a particular design solution works to
meet the stated business objectives. We must take it away from the
subjective, and move it into the objective.
This article is an excerpt from the book,
“Creating
the Perfect Design Brief”, by Peter L. Phillips, published
by Allworth Press with the Design Management Institute (New York:
Allworth Press, 2004, 191 pages, $19.95).
Peter L. Phillips is an internationally recognized
expert in developing corporate and brand identity strategies and
programs. He has had nearly thirty years experience as both a senior
corporate manager and as a consultant. He distinguished himself
in the corporate world as Director of Creative Services for the
Gillette Company and as Director of Corporate Identity and Design
for Digital Equipment Corporation. As a consultant, Peter has developed
numerous global brand identity programs for many Fortune 500 companies.
He teaches the seminars Creating
the Perfect Design Brief and Managing
Design for Strategic Advantage for DMI.
This article appeared in the November
2004 eBulletin.
Feedback on DMI Viewpoints and article proposals
are always welcome! Please email jtobin@dmi.org.
All articles reflect the opinion of the author and not the Design
Management Institute.
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