In tight corners everyone needs a plan right? – a blueprint that gives at least some direction? Even if sometimes the plan is to have no plan then that's OK too – that's progress. For creatives that is a brief. Creatives need good briefs.
Looking at all one's heroes in life they seem to have an effortless way about them. They must have something drawn out to guide them – even if it's only in their heads. A doodle even. They seem to have an in-built navigation system that allows them to access a kind of quality and that enables them to know where they are going at all times.
These people glide 'all-knowingly' through each innovation that they introduce, every piece of work they perform or public statement they may make. They have a quality that suggests an inner belief. One that most of us find so difficult to pull off.
Getting to the perfect design brief?
Life's a tough journey alright and one that we know has no signposts whatsoever other than that big neon sign in your head that occasionally flickers like Bates Motel - 'Progress? No Progress!'
Structure or open to interpretation?
The story goes that Herbert Hoover drew the doodle below while being interviewed. When he tossed it in a White House wastebasket, a guest retrieved it and asked him to sign it. The guest then sold it to a collector called Thomas Madigan – who resold it for a substantial sum. I doubt that anyone knows what Herbert was thinking.
The doodle was soon published in newspapers across the country, often with expert interpretations.
“Generally this man is highly efficient, a man who figures things out and who is at his best tackling difficult tasks,” opined one for the Chicago Tribune. Another objected: “It is the normal thing for a man to do – to occupy himself scribbling with a pencil when talking over the telephone or listening to someone. It would be significant if the president did not do this.” Whatever.
Before it was all over, the doodle had been converted into a fabric pattern for children’s rompers, which even Hoover’s granddaughter was said to have worn. If the president had an opinion about all this, he kept it to himself. It was by no means a brief but we could interpret it.
What was he thinking?
Was he thinking? Was he accessing deep parts of his brain? Was he contemplating a wholly different idea while doodling this? Was he sketching out some way to get access to parts of his mind that only sketching this way could unlock? Was he figuring out how to progress or process his ideas? Was he aimlessly distracted and simply calming his mind to allow better thoughts to come through?
Well we will never know but it's been interpreted anyway.
The Philosophy Behind The Perfect Design Brief!
Take just a minute to understand what Charles Eames achieved in this sketch below. Very little interpretation required. Anyone would know what their task was. The notes below explain the handwriting included in it. Perfect!
The essence of design as interpreted by Charles Eames in 1969
The Key To The Diagram:
1. If this area represents the interest and concern of the design office.
2. And this the area of genuine interest to the client.
3. And this the concerns of society as a whole.
4. Then it is in this area of overlapping interest and concern that the designer can work with conviction and enthusiasm.
NOTE: These areas are not static – they grow and develop as each one influences the others.
NOTE: Putting more than one client in the model builds the relationship - in a positive and constructive way.
Navigate this.
Getting to the heart of the matter with a doodle coupled with precise and logical thinking can be extremely valuable. To me it is at the heart of all valuable thinking process. It is what unlocks the perfect brief. The Colombo Question. Colombo has to be the best at understand how to get to the facts. How to take a brief. Charles Eames was most definitely one of my hero's too. And he definitely doodled AND he had a vision and a purpose to it. There was humour too.
Everything he did was structured. Eames could use his skill at doodling to suggest a framework for thinking and a blueprint for a future that others would buy into. His doodling caused fresh questions. His mind effectively understood the user and the requirement and it became the framework and springboard to something. It set the course. It was the initial navigation device. It was the brief.
I would love to have seen what he would have done with the UI for the apps we all need these days.
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