Design as Veneer (Or as Meaning, Knowledge, Belief & Action)

Some variation of this statement happens in almost every conversation we have with potential vendors, “Wow… you guys really care about design.” And while statement is deadly true, what they typically mean is, “Wow… you guys really care about the way things look.” Veneer. Window dressing. Aesthetics.

But we mean what Steve means:

Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.

And:

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

Because we know that:

Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration.

And:

The dumbest mistake is viewing design as something you do at the end of the process to ‘tidy up’ the mess, as opposed to understanding it’s a ‘day one’ issue and part of everything.

And we believe:

Before you can execute the design, you’ve got to live the design problem.

Because:

People ignore design that ignores people.

And then we try to live all that out in such a way that:

Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent.

I hope we’re succeeding. Miles to go before we sleep.