bits & bytes: Why We Do What We Do

A friend of mine led me to this TED talk by Marian Bantjes.

If you haven’t checked out TED, you should. TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Their concept revolves around bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. There are two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK each summer.

Back to the topic at hand. Why do I do what I do? Every day I get to think, “who is this for, what does it say, and how should this look”? As a designer, Bantjes brings up the the concern of not contributing. Typefaces, colour swatches, proofs, sketches and code. Does good design matter?

I am reminded, yes. As she puts it, it’s about reaching an audience and planting a seed of inspiration. Truly imaginative work is important to society, seeding the imagination of the populous. Who might see your work and turn it in to something else? Bantjes suggests that good design might inspire a doctor or a baby sitter, but it’s difficult to quantify, and our society tends to under value what it can’t measure. Society needs these seeds from all disciplines to keep all sectors growing and imagining.

We are confronted with design (good and bad) in the private and public realms every day. Have you ever been to an airport and can’t find your gate? Did you have one of those walls filled with magazine pages as a teenager or pick up a bottle of wine just for the label? Have you ever stood in front of a painting and felt something – anything?

Be open to new ideas, to receiving visual information and allow yourself to react. No, appearances aren’t everything. Closing yourself off to good design whether it be in your own room, a new restaurant or a magazine is doing yourself an injustice. How are you inspired and what feeds your new ideas?

Have you forgotten what it feels like?