Once upon a time, I heard a story that went something like this (it’s a rough retelling):

Two people are sitting at a bar, one is an artist. The artist doodles on a napkin, finishes and puts his pen down. The guy next to him leans over, takes a peek and says, “Hey, that’s a really nice drawing. And it only took you thirty seconds!” The artist responds, “Actually, it’s taken me thirty years.”

This past weekend, Matchstic was privileged to be one of three design firms to host a group of design students visiting from the University of Tennessee (of which Blake, Nick and Justin are alumni). We spent a Saturday morning touring and hanging around at the house, chatting, eating and answering questions. One student asked, “What did you learn that you feel was useful, and what was not?” This brings us back to our dear artist from the bar.

The short answer to the question of what’s important to learn is, well, everything. As the years go by, I’ve found myself to be constantly changing — flip-flopping even — in the ways I see, approach and practice design. I’ve found that my work is influenced by everything from my hobbies, music I listen to, discussions and debates, reading and traveling. Classes that I disliked when in school or things I disagreed with also find a way to influence my thinking, whether it be a later-found appreciation or affirmation of how not to do things or repeat mistakes. Lots of practice and real-world experience has played a huge part in constantly evolving my thought process.

One of the most difficult tasks in our industry is valuating the work; design, say a typical logo, can sometimes look deceptively simple and not very labor intensive. But, as our bar-doodler implied, every small stroke, choice of color or typography is the result of intuition, education and experience. A designer’s decision on form, order and proportion are influenced by everything he has soaked in, everything he has learned or unlearned throughout his lifetime. In the hands of a good designer, these are the things that come together to create great piece of design. And it’s these things that transcend the all-too-common bad design informed by shallow trends, poorly-devised “market research” and reliance on flashy gimmicks and fluff.

Illustration, Michael Buchino

This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Design, Matchstic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.