(At least not that I've found...)
Earlier this week, we were reviewing projects in class. A student presented an idea with merit, but with an unimpressive formal follow-through.
I asked: "This seems like a less interesting way to present this. Why'd you do it this way instead of that way?".
Their response: "This way was easier"...
[Easy has become a commodity.]
This began a class discussion of "easy" in design... particularly while still in school.
In many industries, easy has become a commodity. Much of the above should honestly not be hard, but we've made it inordinately complex for one reason or another and many folks — from Staples to Kinkos to Southwest have attempted to streamline these more-transactional endeavors.
However, when it comes to the element of "easy" in design — particularly for early practitioners — choosing the easy way (versus the better way) just doesn't seem right.
Maybe because if were easy, it'd be less special. If it were easy, folks would do it themselves and not hire us to crack the hard nuts.In this particular project students are asked to find pictures; use type in an expressive and evocative way; and integrate a graphic element.
On the photo side, it's become far too easy to pull images from the internet via a simple search or through a few sites that sell inexpensive images. However, we've all seen that particular image of a handshake a thousand times. Why? Because it's easy to find. It was easy for you to find and it's easy for the million other folks putting together a PowerPoint presentation to find. Everyone has Google. Everyone has a dollar to spend at istockphoto. Does that make a nice, well-composed — yet inexpensive and easy-to-find — stock image less worthy? Yeah, it kind of does... in the same way that even though Helvetica (Archer, DIN, you name it) is a really great typeface, when it's being used on everything our eyes get a little tired of it. However, not everyone is willing to try to shoot something themselves; or make friends with photographers who might do them a favor; or scour a bit deeper into flickr; or even keep up with other photo resources on their own so that searching is as easy as referring to what you've already bookmarked... but those that do commit this extra effort generally yield better products. Why? Because it wasn't easy.
On the type side, you can download thousands of digital fonts for free... but what font best says "fear"? Likely nothing on dafont, but instead something scratched into a piece of wood by hand, then photographed, adjusted and overlayed onto the image in an interesting way. No typeface — free or not — plastered across an image is going to have the same impact. Why? Because scratching type into wood isn't easy.
Some students may claim that they simply don't have time to shoot their own images or scratch type into wood — and while this might be very, very true, a quick solution is right up there with an easy solution, isn't it? We're very sensitive to our students' out-of-class responsibilities... but it is grad school, right? It's supposed to be hard and time consuming. It shouldn't be easy. Moreover, reflect that same "too busy" notion on client work in the real world— will you provide lesser design to your clients on weeks when your in-laws are in town visiting? Of course not — you'll have to make the time to do it right (or work smarter v. harder/longer). Why not start on that path now?
Granted, this notion is still in it's early stages — after all, it really only came up formally in the past few days unlike the Why "It" Matters spiel which has been circulating in my student forums for a while and has had a chance to evolve a bit. Maybe I have it all wrong. Maybe it's OK to not put more time into something in the hopes to create a better solution — especially if time is short.
What are your thoughts? Should design be easy? Easier? Why isn't it easy already? What are the repercussions if there were a Command-shift-D keystroke that made good design automatic? Sure, we'd be out of a job, but we'd be surrounded by awesomeness.
The comment forum is open.
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Easy is status quo. Without pushing any boundaries no one learns and no one challenges their conceptions of reality.
Great discussion to have. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Takeonceaday | 01/01/2012 at 05:03 AM