Good designs are like evergreen songs

A brilliant melody like Ain’t No Sunshine by Bill Withers or a timeless beat like We Will Rock You by Queen doesn’t need any instruments. We can whistle or clap it, and everyone knows the song immediately. On the other hand, a flat or banal melody cannot be saved even by the best orchestra with the most expensive instruments in the world.

It’s the same with design and ideas. A rough sketch of stick figures and speech bubbles on a napkin can visualize an idea for an advertising campaign worth millions. A boring illustration composition, on the other hand, doesn’t become more exciting when we color it in Photoshop. As far as logos are concerned, Kurt Weidemann puts it in a nutshell:

A logo is good when you can scratch it in the sand with your big toe

Kurt Weidemann (typographer, designer).

Before we waste too much time working out an idea or a design, let’s just put in the minimum effort as soon as possible. After that, we can always decide whether to take it a step further or drop it. Just visualizing it in some form usually shows whether it will work.

4 reasons why toddlers are all artists

When we watch toddlers painting or blowing into a flute, we might be a little envious of how unselfconsciously and unbiased they approach things. Pablo Picasso said:

Every child is an artist. The problem is to remain an artist once they grow up

Pablo Picasso

Let’s see why this is true:

  1. Toddlers feel no resistance to start – no procrastination, no overthinking, no anxiety over a blank canvas. Children get started right away with what is in front of them. They paint, craft, and drum fearlessly.
  2. Toddlers try everything without expectations. They don’t know failure in creating. When they paint a picture, they don’t care about the result. It has no meaning, no value to them. It is all about the moment of painting. They also don’t care (yet) whether we, the adults, admire their works or not. We are the ones who see value in their paintings by collecting or hanging them on walls. The toddlers move on as soon as they finish without looking back.
  3. Toddlers are immediately in the flow. As soon as they have something interesting in front of them, they grab it. We adults need time and think about strategies to get into a creative flow as quickly as possible and not get distracted by e-mails, news, or social media.
  4. Toddlers enjoy the freedom of being unattached to their identity, yet. It’s all about perception. They try everything they can find. They don’t define themselves as illustrators, composers, chefs, or professional tower builders. Adults do this to ensure their place in society and write it on business cards. On the other hand, a toddler can be everything at once, always, and sometimes even at the same time.

When we watch toddlers playing, we see the pure act of experiencing and creating—such a great role model for us adults.