Masters of Design

Loved the article in Fast Company that profiled the six person jury who picked the Masters of Design. Here are some of the keywords that resonated with me. They are concepts that can applied to anything that we have a hand in shaping.

• Diversity - the need to understand different cultures. Often it is our culture that is deeply rooted within us that influences our thinking, perceptions and judgements.
• Patience - give ideas time to spring alive (or die). Too often, we shoot down ideas because they are rough and new, perhaps too radical for us or too alien a concept to grasp. Defer judgement and give ideas a chance to take shape.
• Iterate - we often see a movie that is so slick and professional and we forget the number of takes to each scene, the amount of material that wound up on the cutting floor, the number of fluffed lines and so on. The photographer whose picture of the Pope on the cover of Time magazine took a couple of hundred of shots before finding the right one.
• Discovery - very often we end up in a place we had not intended or even anticipated but be prepared to take unorthodox paths and untried thoughts which may lead us to a greater reward.
• Choices - designing is about making choices. Be prepared to recognize there are always choices in every step of our thinking and we have to explore and consider each one.
• Abstraction - you have to see the entire system at 10,000 feet to see the flow, form and function. The most beautiful sport cars are simple and almost plain but extremely beautiful, yet under the hood lies a complexity that is beyond most of our comprehension. Sometimes less is more.

Whatever you do, take it beyond where you found it...that has always been the mark of progress...