Better, not more

Five days, five themes, thirteen keynote events and numerous exhibitors – paper samples, digital printers, letterpress printers and more than enough design inspiration.

Last month I attended the 2014 HOW Design Live conference and between the in-house design sessions, keynote speeches, paper samples and brainstorming sessions, I discovered a central theme. I don’t think it was intentional and perhaps it is fundamental to design so it emerged naturally, but; try not to be afraid of failure and, in the words of Seth Godin, we need to learn to be ok with “this might not work.”

If you’re not familiar with Seth Godin, he advocates the end of “interruption marketing” and a move towards “permission marketing.” He specializes in ideas and how to spread them. The main thrust of his argument is that, too often, we let our “lizard brain” hold us back. That’s the part of our brain that senses danger in a primal way. However, in creative settings, there is rarely any actual physical danger … just the danger of an idea not working. So, instead of working on that new idea, the lizard brain talks us out of it and we produce nothing, which is dangerous in creative professions. In one of my favorite moments, Godin said;

Another high-profile keynote speaker, Malcolm Gladwell also touched on the fear of failure. In his case he advocated against being too big to fail. Both Godin and Gladwell discussed the idea of “better, not more.” Instead of growing and growing, trying to be everything to everyone, both speakers advocated specialized focus; serving a particular need, rather than all the things.

Feeling inspired by both Godin and Gladwell’s big ideas about creative freedom, I attended Stefan Mumaw’s session, “Becoming an Idea Witchdoctor,” which was all about how to brainstorm better.

Mumaw encouraged us to go for the absurd and ridiculous in initial brainstorming sessions; it’s far easier to dial back an idea than it is to dial it up later. He led us in an example session where we iterated ideas for the world’s best all-weather, all-purpose baby carriage, unbound by the laws of physics.

Beyond inspiration, I attended a number of sessions on digital content strategy, which, though strategy driven, remained true to the theme of not being afraid of failure. Digital content strategy is still relatively new to many fields and there may be a fear of the unknown and/or failing at the unknown. Armed with exercises and ideas, the session leaders shared with us new ways to approach designing digitally and often that means; content first. So, experiment. It might not work, but if you don’t try you’ll never know and you’ll never make any new discoveries.

Related:
Seth Godin on Really Bad Powerpoint