Where do you get new ideas?

In the new, of course.

Where you have never been, where you might never have imagined you could be. A world apart, in other words, where you happen to be, when the moment hits you. The ‘a-ha’ moment. And after that, all that you’ve been unsure about clicks into place. The who of you, the why. It’s where we go when we start our design processes, here, with clients, because the opening up of a space, a S P A C E, where you can venture that way, is half of the work. Getting there isn’t easy. But getting there is the objective, for starting a real design process that begins from a clear concept.

This is who I am, this is what I do, and this is why it matters.

A design concept will sum these.

Are you ready?

Great design starts with opening a space for exploration

‘Discovery design,’ as I like to call it, is how we roll, here at Design Kompany. Which means occasionally going out into the world on walkabouts, as I do with Atelier S P A C E field reporting and making zines on the road, and also, the virtual converasation salon, too. We learn. We discover. We connect. Sometimes, we co-create. If it’s a client project, it’s always this kind of space for listening for the intrigue, and designing a concept for you based on that.

Of course, it has to be based on something that’s really honest, really your own, too. Finding that out can take some legwork, and a lot of missteps, for sure, especially when we’re just getting started. Still, if we trust the process, desig discovery can really work. When it does, you will be somewhere you never quite imagined you might. This is the part where it gets really interesting.

Anything is possible.

Making space for this kind of thing is fine for clients, but I love to create opportunities for other people to experience our style of discovery, too.

 

Making space for conversation, learning, and discovery

I’m well here and making virtual ‘parties’. For us to meet, talk and connect in the way that used to happen before internet took over the attention spans of everyone you see on the street. I see orange juice sellers, construction workers, a woman frying chicken, and the staff at my local Third Place hanging out doing their work on my way over here and they are too preoccupied to be on their phones but in other places, like when you park for a while at the student cafes, it’s three phones and a laptop and talking to each other—all at once.

What happened to regular conversations, though? I felt that way and started making more of them: virtually. Because of circumstances; I’m not anywhere near a native English-speaking population, which is fine, but I do find myself sometimes wondering what it would be like to commingle with them someday. Listening to my mix tape and writing this. Ambient community is nice. I like The Jimmy Cake. I remember seeing them in Dublin, ages ago. HT AM

Let’s play

The point of this, for a design blog, which I promised to focus this site to be more about now, is that the most important part of a design engagement, I feel, is a fantastic dialogue. This has to start with a strong rapport. If you don’t have that, you don’t get much data to go with to build a strong identity or other graphic design or ‘content’ with.

You need to really, truly understand. This art, I feel, is lost these days as people bedazzle their new clients with splashy graphics and videos. I almost went that route, about 15 years ago, but I realized: why? The design is not about frills. It’s about getting the story solid. Designers need to listen, for that.

You need to get better at it, if you’re not good at it, if you want to properly engage with people and make sure that you’re able to hear them. That’s why I focused on conversation salons and popups sometimes, I think. I wanted to get better at conversing. In part for growing myself. But also, so that the work I could do for DK’s clientele could be built from a strong foundation where they could say, ‘I hear you. You hear me. We get each other. Now let’s go play.’ And we do. Reviews of my own approach personally are at my website, dipikakohli.com.

 

Design is about asking good questions. Even when I was in engineering school, it was about solving for the exact thing, the ‘What is the problem you want to solve?’ question comes before throwing up random ideas. You have to know what the objective is. If it’s to figure out the load on beams for a skyscraper, tell me how tall you want it to be, and we’ll backcalculate for floor height, adjust, and get to the answer. Solving problems is multi-layered but it takes focus. I am super glad I went to engineering school, but I forget sometimes how much the strategic angle to making things happen is the underpainting of DK. I forget that many people think ‘creatives’ have zero idea about how to think rationally. Maybe some people like to be blurry and abstract and forget to make a plan. But I’m not one of them. I like plans. I like to solve problems. Tangible and concrete is my style. Yeah, I realize how much engineering set me up for being able to do this, methodically, step-by-step. Calculate. Solve. I design because I have skills in this.

We frame the ‘what is the problem we are going to try to solve?’ problem, first, then, we work together to collaboratively solve it. With branding, people often gotta get right to basics, and answer, ‘Who am I?’

Brand identity design starts with intention | ‘The life you want to live is the one you’re living right now’

DK is an occasional reader of items on Reddit. Perusing r/simpleliving, I found this.

 

So good. So well-put.  This was a response to a series of comments about ‘why do some people want to be famous?

Conversations in Reddit are one way to get to see how people are interacting and engaging with strangers and discovering new inputs, as we go. Of course it’s a silo, which is the drawback, and limited to those who can read and write English and have a way of getting access with technology and hardware, and so on, but I think, given that I live in Cambodia and see pretty much everyone having a phone now including the wage laborers in my alley who I see every morning on my routines. I think this used to be a thing: accessibility and the ‘digital divide.’ Not so much now. One other thing I liked on this thread was when someone said: ‘Attention is the new cocaine.’