Red Report

This is the fourth issue of the Red Report, a weekly review on taste and trends. This issue is free to read. To comment or request specific coverage, follow @antimofm on Warpcast. If you're looking for design services, you'll find more information here.

Work

When I say craftsmanship, what's the first thing that comes to your mind?

I'm willing to bet it's not a UX designer in a beanie. You're probably thinking about a ceramist spinning a vase or a tailor cutting fabric to size. Something physical. That is the unspoken, artificial divide between (material) craftsmanship and (digital) design.

It's unspoken because it's mostly anecdotal. Maybe it's because these days, when you approach a cobbler or a woodworker, it's likely to be for a gift or a special occasion rather than something functional—something you need. But to them, it's just work.

The irony is that, while most people consider craftsmanship more artistic than digital design, I have a hard time picturing a tailor in front of a mood board, with his head in the clouds, struggling to find inspiration. No, what a tailor does is take your measurements. A good tailor then will ask about the occasion, the climate, your lifestyle. A tailor will then get to work.

There's this quote by painter Chuck Close I've first come across years ago which always rang true, but I never really understood its meaning until now:

Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightening to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.

Chuck Close produced thousands of paintings. Many of his portrait paintings are 7 feet tall and 7 feet high. He clearly wasn't waiting around. There's a lot we (as designers) could learn from him, but especially from craftsmanship.

Sure, you can have ideas. You can try to be innovative. But none of that is necessary to do good design. What is necessary is material. The best way to improve your design process is to think of inspiration not as some preternatural creative direction that comes from without, but as the timber to the woodworker.

Every Sunday these past four weeks, since I started writing this review, I have been tempted to postpone it because I felt like I didn't have the time. But this is not optional. Tomorrow is Monday, and I have client work waiting for me. I can't do my job without this.