Creative Surface as Business Substance

Design formalism and its role in brand problem solving

In an ideal world designers simply want to make things look cool and businesses simply want to solve problems to make their businesses better. In reality the never ending friction to align these two impulses has existed as long as creativity has been in service of business.

In the following paragraphs I’ve tried to unpack why these tensions exists and how to reconcile them through the design process. First, let’s look at projects in general through the mindset of a designer. Most often what is going through the mind of the designer is that they generally work every day under the assumption that at all costs they do not want to create a design solution that is ugly, disposable or easily forgotten even if it solves the problem at hand. The designer’s internal mission is to elevate whatever they are making above the rest of the commercial artifacts out there. Designers are also designing for the other designers in the world that are also seeking formally amazing things in a sea of commercial averageness.

What many designers don’t realize is that most clients have no grasp of the ulterior creative…