May 24, 2010
Cameron Moll’s Good Design vs. Great Design
I attended LessConf on Friday. It was a great day of learning and meeting people. My favorite speaker was Cameron Moll. I’ve followed Cameron since about 2004 when he posted some Photoshop tutorials on the Wicked Word style. He gave a great presentation on “Good Design vs. Great Design.” Here are my notes for that presentation:
Labor vs Passion
When you treat your work as a passion, your work is greater.
Cameron created Authentic Jobs because he was frequently being asked for hiring recommendations.
Cameron’s designed some posters of ancient Roman buildings like the colleseum.
Lesson in a Tweet: Satisfy your passions, whether on the clock or off.
Reduction vs Organization
The idea of simplicity is often touted, but what does that really mean? Simple for who? For what?
“The simplest way to cheive simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.” – John Maeda
Visual Heirarchy implifies the interface. This can be seen when looking at the difference between Apple’s and AT&T’s “Thanks for your order page”. Both pages have the same information, but Apple’s design has visual heirarchy, and is thus much easier for a user to immediately see the purpose of the page.
Ask: What does the person viewing this page/site/screen care about?
Tip: to see visual heirarchy blur the pages. Great heirarchy isn’t always achieved by eliminating complexity but by managing it.
Influence vs Inspiration
Influence is borrowed. (e.g. Getting ideas from design galleries). It’s shelf life is short. It happens when you’re looking for it.
Inspiration is earned. Doesn’t always come immediately. It’s the catalyst for true creativity. It happens when you’re not looking for it.
Examples of works that have inspired Cameron:
- A kids book: John, Paul, George, and Ben
- VLock, a deadbolt that makes it easy to get your key in the hole
- A flip book called, Rainbow in your hand
- Radio control planes
- Jazz music
- Retro iphone dock
Inspiration…
- Is different for everyone – Worry about what works for you, not for them.
- Can’t be scheduled – Create opportunities to increase your chances for inspiration.
- Is elusive – They come quickly, and sometimes you forget them just that fast. Strike while the iron is hot.
Cameron recommended his Epson Workforce 1100 printer. He prints out stuff and marks all over it.
He also has a “portable war room.” Get giant roll of butcher paper and stick it up all over the wall that you can stick stuff to. You can also easily roll it up and take it to a client meeting. Always carrry a pen with you. Cameron carries a Yafa Poquito Pen that fits into his Victorionox wallet.
Creative Drive vs Creative Pause
Sometimes creative is a numbers game. Push yourself through enough ideas, and there’s a good chance you’ll land on something creative.
Creative pauses are important. Cameron likes to look at the stars, (and recommends the Star Walk iphone app.
Hubble telescope had a flaw that was 1/50th the inch of a piece of paper that made images blurry. NASA team trying to come up with idea. One man (James) was in a shower noticed his shower head, and came up with a with a fix.
The shower is a common place where creative pauses happens. Bed. Bath. Bus. 3 common places of pause.Confined. Isolated. Body engaged with monotony. There’s limited mental engagement that allows mind to water. Shower creates white noise. What are other activities like this? Driving. Exercising. Cooking.
Creative pause is a shift to being fully engaged to passively engaged (or disengaged altogether).
Cameron recommends Dive Slates, waterproof tablets for shower. Get slate cleaner. Get it at scuba.com
Solution Refining vs Problem Defining
Great designers recognize that problem defining and solution refining are interdependent.
Tearing apart a design and teaching other people has pushed Cameron to a higher level in his design.
Cameron doesn’t believe in the principle in balance, but make sure your priorities are in order and your family gets your priority time.
