Quantity Over Quality

In my last blog post, I made a controversial statement that design is not art. Well, I'm back again in this blog post to challenge another long-standing aphorism.

The popular saying is that you should value "quality over quantity." In almost every aspect of my life, I agree with this idea. I choose simple, well-made clothes instead of fast-fashion. I value experiences over objects. I prefer to save my money for one good meal out per month instead of 5 mediocre ones.

But when it comes to creative projects, especially in the beginning stages, I have learned time and time again that the far better approach is to ideate as many possible solutions as you can. I preach to our team to prioritize quantity over quality.

I get defensive when I hear people say things like "I wish I was creative," or "I could never come up with that idea, I'm not creative enough." Statements like that assume that creativity is like magic. They present creativity as this precious trait that only a gifted few possess. Anyone who has succeeded in a creative line of work knows that is simply not the case. Creativity doesn't flutter in and out of our consciousness whenever it pleases. It's not summoned out of thin air like a magician. 

While it is true that some people are more naturally gifted than others at the skills that might lead to a more creative thinker, the bottom line is that creativity is about hard work. It's about approaching a problem from every possible solution. It's about poking holes in the promising ideas. It's about relying on your personal experiences as a curious person to connect new ideas. I've seen it time and time again. The best work comes from those who work the hardest at it. Period.

Therefore, it's in those early stages of a project that you should focus on generating a massive quantity of ideas. If you're a designer working on a new logo for a client, you should generate hundreds of sketches before landing on a final solution. And once you get there, you should iterate on that solution with a hundred more variations. If you're a writer, you need to write a hundred different headlines to even have a chance to land on five good ones. As much as I wish it were true, there seldom are shortcuts. You have to do the work to get to the bottom of the challenge.

An un-disciplined creative person tends to hone in on a particular idea after just a few minutes of brainstorming. They lock in on a single idea and begin to refine the details. This is like an architect fussing over the design of a single window, and not paying much attention to the entire house. The solution never benefitted from being through the entirety of the creative process. There was no exploration. Therefore, there was no amazing creative discovery.

It's only through a rigorous iteration of a massive quantity of options, that you will ultimately find quality.

Is Design Art?

It's a question that comes up as early as your days in college, and it's a question that continues to come up throughout your career. Is design art?

No. 

And by the end of this short post, I hope you'll agree with me.

Saying design isn't art doesn't mean it can't be beautiful. Or bring someone to tears. Or inspire millions of people to action. Design uses the same toolbox as art. The difference between design and art isn't how they are made. The difference comes before the first sketch even appears in the sketchbook.

Art is all about the voice of the artist. The intent is to communicate a personal idea of the artist's choosing. 

Design is about the voice of the brand. The intent is to communicate an idea that solves a specific problem for a specific audience.

A designer's job is to use all of the tools of visual art—color, composition, type, imagery, illustration—to effectively communicate on behalf of a third-party to their audience. This is the client.

A designer has to be ready and able to adopt the appropriate style to most effectively communicate with their client's audience. Many young designers get this idea completely backward. They think that their clients should adapt their style as a designer. That's not design. That's art.

This question goes beyond academic philosophizing. It has real practical application. Adopting this point-of-view will empower a designer to produce better, more effective work. It will improve internal critiques and client presentations (the feedback is about the design, not you as an artist). And it will improve the range of styles that a designer has experience with.

It's also one of the many reasons that I don't participate in design awards competitions, or consider the number of awards won when judging résumés. To me, many are judged as art shows. Not design shows. The winners are often chosen by how close they come to mimicking the trendiest style of the moment. I wish more consideration was given to how effectively they met the objectives of the intended challenge. An indication that these shows are about style over substance is that many don't even ask about the objective when submitting work.

This doesn't mean that a designer can't be valued for their unique skills or point-of-view. On the contrary, it's this kind of experience that will allow the designer to truly empathize with their client's audience and produce the most effective—and often, the most beautiful—work.

The Most Valuable Skill a Designer can Learn

When you think of a designer, what skills immediately come to mind? It's probably skills like creativity, technical ability, or drawing.

Those skills are all important. But there is another that is just as important.

The ability to write.

Having the ability to write means you can think clearly. It means you can organize all of those different thoughts in your head to clearly define a solution to a design brief. Honing your skills as a writer is synonymous with honing your skills as a thinker.

It means you can communicate your ideas with clarity. As much as I loathe my email inbox, email has become the de facto form of communication for the modern knowledge worker. Being able to present your work with concision and clarity is nearly as important as the work itself. Think about how many confusing emails you've received in the past week alone. How many times have you misinterpreted the tone or intent of a poorly written email?

And if you agree with me that the web is 90% typography, then you can conclude that writing is a big part of UX design. Choosing the best word for a navigational button is a lot more important than how it’s designed.

In reality, the ability to write well is a core skill for any knowledge worker. I can't think of a single role within the marketing, communications, or design industries that would not benefit from having a strong command of the written word.

I don't claim to excel at this skill. But I do try every day to get better. Here is one tip, and one resource you can put to work right now to become a better writer:

1. Ruthlessly edit everything you write. From copy destined for client products, all the way to the simple status emails you send to your teammates. Try to remove everything that isn't necessary. Then do it again. Try to get to the essential. Occasionally, I use tools like Grammarly and Hemingway to help steer me in the right direction.

2. Read the book On Writing Well by William Zinsser. This book is focused on writing non-fiction prose and is packed with lots of practical advice and examples. No matter if you are writing content for clients, or just internal emails to teammates, reading this book will make an immediate impact.

Become a better writer, and you become a better thinker and communicator. It will fundamentally improve your work and your relationship with your teammates.

Delegate Outcomes. Not Tasks.

If you are a leader of any kind, especially in a creative field like marketing or advertising, you'll want to pay attention to this post.

If you are anything like me, you want to lead a team of individuals who always show up with good ideas. Employees who push the envelope. Who challenge assumptions to create innovative solutions. What you don't want are teammates who sit around and wait to be told what to do. Employees who only give you the bare minimum, and nothing more.

There are many ways to build a team like this. One of the most important ways is to delegate outcomes and not tasks.

What does this mean exactly? It means that you need to present challenges to employees that allow them to use their own experience, intelligence, and unique skills to solve a problem. After all, those are the traits that moved you todid hire them in the first place. When you form your instruction in this way, it allows the employee the opportunity to take ownership of the project. This will result in a teammate who is more engaged, happier, and ultimately, more productive. Not to mention, that you'll likely get more interesting solutions and insights to the problem you're trying to solve. Everybody wins.

Conversely, the manager who delegates individual tasks tends to get the opposite result. This person is sometimes unfortunately known as the "micro-manager." Delegating a set of specific tasks ultimately leads to employees contributing the bare minimum because they know that their ideas don't matter. The best and brightest minds won't tolerate this for long, and you'll quickly see attrition among your best employees.

This methodology isn't easy. It requires a lot of patience from the leader. Instead of "cutting to the chase" you'll often find yourself delicately re-directing your team over and over again as they work their way to the solution. One metaphor that I like is that the manager acts as a set of “guard rails” to redirect their team as they move forward toward the goal. In a deadline-driven industry like advertising, the time required to get to a solution using this method can be exceptionally challenging.

Of course some problems require a more direct form of leadership. Examples might include the aforementioned restraints imposed by deadlines, or working with particularly in-experienced teammates like junior designers and copywriters or interns.

Like all good lessons, this was one that I had to learn the hard way. If you are having trouble with your employees providing the kind of creative insight that you originally hired them for, you might start by looking yourself in the mirror and asking yourself if you're delegating outcomes, or if you're delegating tasks.

Web Design is 90% Typography

Without question, an area where I see young designers struggle is in the fundamentals of typography. It is especially evident when reviewing their website designs.

Think about it. Visit almost any website. What do you see? Type. Lots and lots of type. If you don't have a strong command of the fundamentals of good typography, you're never going to design a good website.

There are more than aesthetics to a successful design. Design means the website needs to be functional. Headline size. Display fonts. Body copy size. Vertical rhythm. Baseline grids. Leading. These are all fundamental concepts that the modern designer needs to master. Here is one specific example.

Did you know that famed typographer Emil Ruder figured out that 50-60 characters is the optimal line length for body copy? If the lines are too long, the eyes have a hard time identifying the next one. If they are too short, the eyes are bouncing around too often, disrupting a sense of rhythm. Readability goes far beyond making sure the type is big enough.

That is just one of the hundreds of examples. If you want to get started learning more, here are a few of my favorite resources:

The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst was my textbook in my college typography courses. While it focuses on print design, the basic principles apply anywhere.

Butterick's Practical Typography by Matthew Butterick is a fantastic modern teaching of type fundamentals. Perhaps most interesting about Matthew is that he's actually a lawyer, and developed an interest in design later in life. He has even created a website all about how lawyers can apply good typography to their legal documents.

Finally, Typographie: A Manual of Design by the aforementioned Emil Ruder is a classic type primer. In addition to being absolutely stuffed with informative content, the book is just stunning to behold. It is itself a masterclass in design and type fundamentals.

Become a master with typography, and everything you design will become better. Especially your designs for the web.