Good morning! Today I want to share a thought I have struggled with since I was a child attempting to achieve the most complex arts projects to the highest level of perfection... For school.
As designers, it is easy to fall on the trap of wanting to refine our work until it is "perfect". However, perfect does not exist and truth to be said, sometimes done is better than perfect.
Tom Dixon's signage is an illustration of this.
With such a refined aesthetic, one would have expected to see a signage that reflected the company's design ethos, and yet, this is what you get!
A fantastic illustration of two possible scenarios:
1. A temporary measure while the sign is "perfectly" designed and manufactured
2. A practical solution to let people know what they need to know and leave the team time to focus on more urgent matters
(Although I always felt it was option one, after two years, I begin to wonder) Either way , I see this as a lesson.
Why? Because as soon as you do something, press send, release it into the wild, something cathartic happens... you can focus on the next stage. You gain perspective , be critical, invite feedback and can move forward either to complete it or fine tune it.
Design in general and Architecture in particular, despite popular misconceptions, is not art.
There is the rational side (the building programme, tools you use to make things happen- structure, services, materials, construction...) and the emotional side (the light, sense of space, interaction between spaces ...) and unfortunately, in school you are given the impression that you can find all the answers for both in your head.
However whereas the rational side can be worked out in paper, or your head, the emotional side requires the input of those whose lives will be shaping the project.
And so we should know that when we are on your own, refining our work in our heads, we are doing so for ourselves, not our clients.
With this in mind, and going back to the picture, I want to invite you to ask yourself whether you need a sign or a bucket of paint and a brush when your next project finds you.
