The SlapFu team have just finished up an intensive couple of days “getting our inspiration on” at Semi-Permanent 2010, New Zealand’s largest annual design gathering.
Amongst the many highlights for us from the high-calibre conference:
- Jessica Hische, NYC based illustrator and typographer
- Duncan Speakman, UK artist and sound designer
- Dick & Otis Frizzell, NZ’s own powerhouse father/son artistic dynasty
But one speaker in particular leapt out at me with his presentation – leading UK graphic designer Adrian Shaughnessy.
Adrian spoke at length about what he referred to as the “15 Paradoxes of Design”, outlined below:
1. There’s no such thing as bad clients. Only bad designers.
2. The best way to become a better designer is to become a client.
3. If we want to educate our clients about design, we must first educate ourselves about our clients.
4. If we want to make money as a graphic designers, we must concentrate on the work not the money.
5. For graphic designers, possessing verbal skills is as important as possessing good visual skills.
6. Clients will only listen to us, if and when, we bother to listen to them.
7. Most ideas fail, not because they are bad ideas, but because they are badly presented.
8. Designers who use the argument — ‘I know best, because I am a professional’, are usually unprofessional designers.
9. We often imagine that all the good projects go to other people. Not so, in fact, nearly all jobs start off as neither good nor bad.
10. Designers never like being wrong: but to admit being wrong is one of the best ways to gain respect and trust.
11. The best way to do great work is to be tough and domineering with our clients. In fact, the opposite is true.
12. The best way to run a graphic design studio and get the best out of designers is to put yourself last.
13. The best way to self-promote is to avoid talking about yourself.
14. If we believe in nothing, then our clients will have no reason to believe in us.
15. A designer’s brain is capable of much more than making things look pretty.
I love the customer focused theme running throughout his list, and the key principles are of course relevant across all disciplines, not just design.
Excellent stuff.
