Guest Contributor Jivan Davé is a designer at Ferebee Lane + Co, providing a viewpoint that helps shape the creative direction of brands like Le Creuset, Blackberry Farm, BMW and Hickory Chair.
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If you ask any designer what the definition of design is, they’ll most likely tell you that design is about problem solving.
It’s a Q&A relationship—answering every question with a reason. But when you take away the answer, when purpose is no longer present, it becomes something completely different—art.
Art creates the problem. Design solves the problem.
Art is expression. Design is definition.
Art is for the artist. Design is for the world.
Art is subjective. Design is objective.
The root of these differences lies in the thought processes of artists and designers—art thinking and design thinking. In design thinking, there’s a solution to a problem. In art thinking, there isn’t a problem to be solved, only expressed.
After reading a recent Fast Company article on the power of art thinking versus design thinking, it occurred to me that there might be an advantage to blending these two methodologies together. Amy Whitaker writes, “Although the design process can be full of ‘eureka!’ moments and true contributions to how we all live, what it misses from art thinking is a comfort with the possibility of failure.” Design thinking in its nature discourages the possibility of failure by saying there is a problem and consequently, a solution. In contrast, art thinking allows true, visceral creation because it does not see limits.
And it’s this tendency to think within project constraints that keeps us locked into what we know to work, reusing styles and adapting to present trends. It’s easier to create a menu of styles and executions that we then tailor them to our ideas. We know they will work—because we’ve seen them before.
However, unique and innovative design is rooted in deep conceptual thinking that comes from exploring wild ideas with the potential to fail. We shouldn’t be afraid of doing something people have never seen before to avoid criticism. The world might not like it, or even understand it, because it’s not distressed, vintage, or encompassed in a circle, but when you’re free to think without confines, you’re free to create without relying on trends. And after this exploration, you can be confident that your solution is the best solution to that problem—that you dove in deep and extracted something truly unique for that brand.
Artistic freedom and design problem-solving are not mutually exclusive.
As a creative, we find success when we marry the two to give clients what they ask for and more. When we approach a design problem with the limitless freedom of art thinking, we can satisfy a specific client request or project constraint and at the same time push their brand forward with ideas that are both passionate and daring. Some of these ideas will get rejected, but setting aside the fear of failure during the creative process will begin to nurture a naturally innovative mindset. Then, all it takes is one moment of trust on the part of a client to take a brand from good to great.
Art thinking puts us in a place of reinvention.
When we combine that with the focus of design thinking and aren’t afraid to explore uncharted territory in execution—that’s when truly innovative solutions are born.
