What makes a design(er) good? It is a question that plagued me while in school and has not let up since. It is the kind of question that pops up when you want it least and disappear just when you think you have it. Why are we taught about the work of Corbusier or Man Ray instead of the architect that designed my house? What makes them better designers?
Maybe great designers have a particular characteristic that makes them the best. Maybe it is being mindful. Or maybe being acutely aware of the world around them. Or maybe a good designer has a particular taste that just appeals to a wide range of people. But I don’t think this quite captures it – we are not really getting at the essence of what makes a good designer. These all describe a great designer, but they are not what makes a designer great. They are good descriptions, not driving forces.
Perhaps it’s genetics. Perhaps the great designers were simply born with something rare; they all have extra neuron connections in just the right place or a certain mole on their left leg. This could be it, but then why do we even bother to go to school? Why are we being taught architecture when there are already some people who are just gifted? Is it not just a fruitless endeavor for the moleless kids? Are there some people who will never be great, who will never have even one flash of inspiration no matter how much they try? That is pretty hard for me to believe.
OK, so if it’s not nature, maybe its nurture. Maybe it comes down to context. Maybe the childhood of a great designer has to be filled with creativity, with artistic parents who send them to a Montessori school and tell them to color outside the lines. And then when they get older, they just have to go to the right lectures and meet the right people at the right time to set the stage for perfection, and the people who missed that Moneo lecture in April of 2009 lost their chance at being great. Silly? Perhaps.
Or perhaps you just get lucky. Maybe beauty really is in the eye of the beholder and design is totally relative? Maybe we only study Corbusier because a few key critics saw his work at the right time and proclaimed that “this is what architecture is, this is the work of a master.” But that means we are all mindless drones being lead along by our big brother, and that of course can’t be true.
I think that it is something else. Two things to be precise. And they are two things that you can be taught, you can be born with, or you can just get lucky with. I think a good designer must both have something good to say and must be able to say it well. They must have something meaningful to express and an ability to express it. We all know designers who are so driven, who have great theories and philosophies, but can’t ever seem to make something that looks good. And then there are the designers who make the most incredible stuff, the stuff that looks awesome, but after a few minutes you just keep thinking, “What does it mean?” “What is it doing?” “Where is the soul?” It takes them both in natural harmony to be great. It takes both a great mind and a great soul to be great.
Joe Rousseau January 26, 2012
I believe Ira Glass puts it best,
“What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”