You’re a ____- based ____ focused on ____ , ____ , and filling in the blank.
I design things, many different kinds of things: things you can see and even things you can hear.
My criteria for choosing the projects I work on is that they are interesting and do no harm, and ideally aim to improve lives or make the world better. If you want to teach people to prompt Chat-GPT or get rich by selling other people things they don’t need, then I am not for you.If, however, you want to change lives, improve society, or would be happy if you managed to change just one person’s perspective, then I would love to help make the message and the design of your project as impactful as your intention.
Design can be powerfully informative. It can open minds, change opinions, and infuse almost anything with emotion.
I have been helping non-profits and for-profits understand and shape who they are and how they look and sound, for just over thirty years, from concept, through design, all the way to asset launch.I’ve worked with people and companies in multiple countries; I’ve had the privilege to work for individuals with a story to tell and organizations with a mission to share.
I realise that I am not for everyone, and I don't want to waste anyone's time, my own included. If you want to blend in then I am probably not for you. However, if you want design that stands out and says something, that seeks to make a positive difference in the world, then maybe I am.
My journey into design began when I was taken under the wing of the marketing director of a large company near where I lived. I was fourteen years old. A world of brand messaging, the strategies behind ads, visual design, the personality of products, customer profiles, and the use of psychology, all exploded, becoming a lifelong fascination. In all of that, what struck me most was that design seemed integral to the process of communicating: it could help or hinder the ability of someone understand any message or piece of information.
In the late 1970's, the famous designer, Dieter Rams, defined design as follows:
"Good design is innovative, it makes a product useful, it makes a product understandable, it is aesthetic, unobtrusive, honest, long-lasting, it is thorough down to the last detail, it is environmentally-friendly. And, good design is as little design as possible."
Graphic and typographic design, page layout, formatting, all of these need to be visually cohesive in a book, in a document, or in any piece of visual art, but they also need to serve a purpose, in fact they need to serve more than one purpose.
Great book design, for example, turns a bound stack of papers covered in text and images, into an object people want to pick up and look at, into something that is a joy to behold. Great design also brings visual structure and order to information and reduces the effort required by users to understand the message you are presenting, whether it's in a single graphic, a complex document, or a simple ad.
In a novel, structure is usually built into the story itself. The story will likely be broken down into chapters and there may, sometimes, even be a single level of headings within those chapters.
However, some books, company documents, reports, brand messaging, etc., need to present a lot of information in order to make their case. And, since that information is likely not part of a single narrative story, conveying it can become very complex. When looking at one particular piece of information, or brand messaging, to understand it the user may need to know what larger subject it relates to, and there may be many larger subjects connected to that single piece of information.
Heirachical structure, themes, motifs, styles within styles, even text headings, are all tools that can be used to achieve this kind of division and connection of information.
When you are in the middle of reading a complex document filled with information, or one full of new concepts and ideas, it can become difficult to see the wood for the trees, and without an overall understanding of the material, the details will become a jumble in your mind. A document can run the risk of failing to inform due to poor presentation, and I don't mean the writing. The details within the writing need visual structure, and that structure needs to be clear and easy to discern. This is true, not just for documents, but for everything that aims to communicate something.
I have worked on orgnaizational brand designs, documents, and books, that were multi-layered, divided into sections, those sections divided into smaller sections, and then each of those had within them seven or eight levels of structure. An information hierarchy like that is a real challenge to make visually obvious to a user or a reader, but it is essential. If this is not done well, even the best writing, messaging, or products, in the world may fail to impact the minds of their audience. This is because people can become visually disorientated by graphical and typographical design that has failed to portray connections and separations of complex information and messaging.
If you want to reach people, to connect with their minds, maybe even to help them grow and change, and the information you need to convey is complex, then your designer needs to take extra care to create a visual structure for that information, one that embodies simplicity.
Design shapes the mediums through which human beings share understanding, wisdom, and inspiration, through which they can evoke emotions, realizations, and even awakenings of purpose. Companies, organizations, or individuals, who seek to achieve those things are touched by a spirit of inspiration, fuelled by a mission. They are imbued with deep meaning and purpose, they speak to people in ways that go far beyond words. Those are the projects to which designers must bring the greatest care and creativity, because those are the projects that can make a positive difference in the world.
Design can change people. Design can make life better.
Use design to help make a difference.
©2024 Oliver Nash