I loved watching these interviews with designers and finding out what they’re passionate about and what sorts of work they admire. I’ve always thought about design in terms of whose aesthetic or style I admired. I love Eames era furniture, for example. I’m often amazed at what a great designer nature is. Think about the human heart, for example. What an amazing design that is.
What was interesting to me is that many of these talented designers didn’t talk much about style or aesthetics, but rather about how good design should help us engage more deeply with the problems of the world.
Deborah Adler (who developed a system for packaging prescription medications that revolutionized the pharmacy experience) says design shouldn’t really be about your individual aesthetic or style. In fact, it shouldn’t be about you. Design should come from the perspective of the heart of the person who will be using what you design and solve their problems. She says:
“Have a love affair with your audience. Dig into their needs. Once you start thinking of a person’s problems (and how to solve them) it quickly becomes a habit and that habit will lead you to better design.”
Ami Kealoha, on the other hand, loves the humble rubber band. She says it’s simple, versatile and has tons of applications. She prefers design that makes the world a better place “rather than just piling onto the big heap of consumerist stuff.”
Similarly, Daniel Pink admires the lowly eraser– whether it’s the eraser on a pencil, a chalkboard or whiteboard, or the computer delete key :
“The eraser allows you to make mistakes, and there’s nothing more valuable in creativity than making mistakes. Because if you can erase, you can create.”
William Drenttel, a designer for social change at Teach For All, values systems design over individual products.
“The big problems are at the systems level,” he says, citing the health care system and standardized testing in the educational systems as examples.
“What we usually try to do is to improve upon a current system rather than creating entirely new ones that might make more sense. Design is about a new way of thinking, a methodology of problem solving that can lead us to solutions that can really help the world.” he says.