And so it begins

And so it begins

In the summer of 1999 I was 16 years old, and as part of what i considered life experiences i needed to have before i was 20, I made the choice to attend a leadership conference aimed at highly motivated over achievers. I was not one of them but i managed to squeeze myself in because i was involved in so many extracurricular activities that my grades while lacking were not nearly as impressive as the list of things i seem to run or organize in school. The GYLC( Global youth leadership conference) is relevant in this maiden post of design-loom for one mayor reason. While attending this conference, each and everyone of the 200 some kids that were involved, were assigned to various countries. They would for the better part of 2 weeks represent these nations in various mock general assemblies and security councils. When i arrived i was very perfectly assigner into the group of kids that would represent Cuba on the floor, and it was this little exercise in role play that would later help me understand the biggest problems designers and most creative people face when dealing with the reality of existing in a world where the market moves society. Clearly the biggest lesson that came from that little experience of a teenager is how incredibly difficult it is to stand up and represent and speak for something you may not believe in. Not that i have problems with communism or cuba for that matter, but while i was tasked to understand why other countries wanted to hurt cuba for its political system, i was also struggling to stand up for choices that had historically been documented in the country as neglectful to its population and we had as part of the responsibility of group, represent that aspect of the country truthfully as if it were our own belief and practice. This is were the future steps back into the picture. Today i find myself learning the incredible act of learning to balance the business side of design with the almost religious oath we all secretly take to not let bad design become a reality within our firms or companies or more simply our very open projects. The defense of the ideal about how pure design must remain before we loose it to the pixel pushing project managers and to the integrity of the design itself is so ingrained into our minds that many forget that we are tasked with a much greater goal of not only solving something in an appealing way, but that ultimately  a connection  must occur between audience and design otherwise we might as well hang up our exacto knives and retreat back to the place from whence we came and isolate ourselves from everyone but those who can think creatively.

Design is so broad in my mind, having studied it for the past 8 years of my life ( seems like a small number but if you think about it, ive ben trying to understand it probably for the lat 18 years! ) at trying to speak of it as just design seems wrong and way out of focus. If you want to begin any sort of commentary on the anything, it seems only appropriate to start by defining the issues you are going to tackle, and why his explanation seems sophomoric at best, i only mention it, because i think more design writing should start to speak more specifically to issues rather than trying to fit everything into a colorful umbrella of happy words like designers, creative’s, and innovators.  I will simply be addressing what i know best, simply because of experience and the lesson you learn from those experiences. I will speak primarily to the issues that Visual designers undergo while working on projects and i will hopefully start to shed some light on my own concerns and maybe serve as a voice of solidarity and support for those who have found themselves in similar situations and maybe sparking solutions discussion or simply rants about what we can do to help.

Why write about project management for designers?

Because I think designers need it, because its way too taboo to speak of how to deal with a design problem outside of the creative realm, and because the more i reasearch the best way to interact and create an optimal way of balancing business, client and design needs the happier my job gets and the better this world becomes. Ellen Lupton once said to our class, that design was not for the few or elite, but for the masses, which is why pioneers like Martha Stewart who where raising the design conscienceness deserved to be praised. I did not understand it then, but now it makes all the sense in the world which is why it begins…. lets hope i find something along the way to make it all seem worth while.