50-Something Tips On “How To Think Designer” — A Netflix Review
A couple of weeks ago, I watched the Netflix Documentary series, Abstract: The Art of Design. As a design enthusiast, I was excited to dive into it to learn more about design in general. This series highlighted some of the most influential creatives in the design industry, and the impact they’ve made in their fields. I’d thought I’d share with you a short description about each of them, a review of their episodes and a couple of key pointers from each designer that helped me frame my own design thinking.
Christoph Niemann — Illustrator
- He came from Germany and moved to New York, where many of his works has appeared on the covers of The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine and American Illustration.
- He prefers working in isolation to focus on projects as it’s easier to create his designs that he wants, something I tend to do myself.
- He frames some of his illustrations based off Lego pieces (which I absolutely loved)
- He learned under Heinz Edelman —another prestigious illustrator, who did not teach by encouragement, but ironically by severe criticism. Not all mentors and teachers teach how you’d expect them to. Key thing here is to not take it to heart.
Niemann quotes throughout his interview some important visualization tips listed below which definitely resonated with me for my own design practice.
- “Abstraction is most important concept of art”
- “Contrast is key”
- “Coming up with thousands of ideas, then narrowing it down to a few, to get rid of everything that’s not essential is important to making a point.”
- His main example he shares was “The Good Shape, The Good Form” — an art exercise where he took one already illustrated object/concept, and created multiple different ways of illustrating that object/concept.
- “Don’t Plan” — Sometimes, he just gathered inspiration where nothing is planned (An example of this occurred during his work Sunday Sketches — which got a favorable response on social media ).
You got to hand it to illustrators, they can create the zaniest handmade works of art.
Tinker Hatfield — Shoe Design
- He shared his story from how he started from being a track athlete, to a world renowned shoe designer. Early in his life, he received a full ride to college, which lead him to meet with Bill Bowerman, the co-founder of Nike. He was actually into architecture before he die shoe design.
- He curated the E.A.R.L (Electro Adaptive Reactive Lacing) method for the first iteration of the self lacing shoe. He waited a couple of years from concept until technology developed further, and the shoe itself was given to Michael J Fox the exact day that Marty Mcfly travels through time in Back to the Future 2, which was really cool seeing it on video.
- He designed Nike’s Air Jordan line of shoes, in which he focused on building the story and legacy behind Michael Jordan’s influence. For the Air Jordan 3 design, their idea for the shoe line was the “make or break point” for Nike.
I wasn’t able to jot down important quotes from his episode of the series, mainly because I was super invested in the backstory of the Air Jordans and forgot to point some out. It obviously became a blow out success. However, the main point I pulled out in his episode is his perseverance to get his work done, the impact he had for Nike, and the immense value he contributed in the design industry. You can’t go anywhere in the shoe industry without hearing his name.
- He actually still shoots with same film and equipment (which is really flattering), since he mentioned how digital photos “allow for a loss of intimacy between photographer and subject.”
Below are some quotes he shared relating to his experiences.
- “Position, lighting, gestures, pose, emotion, are portrayals of the soul.”
- “Great Design simplifies a very complicated world”
Photography captures very special moments in time. A reflection of “what was”. These are concepts Platon boldly highlights with immense feeling in each of his important photo sessions.
Bjarke Ingels — Architect
- He worked on the VM House — an example of what he calls “Urban Tetris” — and the Mountain Dwellings, which he mentions is “a pragmatic realization of something utopian of ‘one block at a time’ ”. His creation Steam Ring is a symbol of celebration instead of pollution for the power plant in Copenhagen.
- He headed the concept of Hedonistic Sustainability in his designs, which questioned if sustainability could be part of increasing your daily life.
He’s an innovator, as most of his designs are completely abstract and never fit the sense of what a normal building should look like, much less feel like. I acquired below some important quotes he mentioned during his interview.
- “Nobody will trust you to build a building, unless you’ve already built a building”.
- He highlighted how it’s important to “Find solutions to problems in a completely unproblematic way”.
- “Build on the basis of turning what’s most likely a dream into a perceptible reality”.
After seeing his buildings come to life in the documentary, I’m making it a personal goal to stay in one of his residences and see for myself the wonders of his work.
- She mentioned how with the advent of smartphones with cameras, stage production have evolved from a focus on photography on the performer, to the focus on the entire stage itself.
Below I mention a couple of quotes she highlighted during her work in both traditional and mainstream stage design.
- “Things are solely made to fill void, and it is fundamental to creative thinking. Start without light to find it.”
- “Find collaborators who you can inquire similar paths with”
- “The theater demands democracy for the same experience from every angle”
Seeing examples of her work myself, I’d love to attend one of designed stages and embrace these first hand, maybe a future Kanye or Beyonce performance somehow. It’s exciting to see in her section how something as simple as strategic placement, lighting, and controls can impact large crowds to make an emotional impact.
Ilse Crawford — Interior Designer.
- She impacted many aspects for IKEA, including their restaurant & cafe look, as well as bringing emotional values to IKEA’s design system that was previously viewed as “cheap, bad furniture”
- She focused on translating the future life of a building into a design language and on creating places that affects people in all five senses.
- Her work with her design team shows their focus on how materials speak to people, since according to her “Humans are always interested in materials. Humans understand better with contrast.”
Ilse had the most inspiring quotes to frame an empathetic way of design thinking, here a couple mentioned below.
“Design is not just visual thing, it’s a thought process, a skill. Ultimately, design is a tool to enhance our humanity, it’s a frame for life”
- “We spend 87% of our lives in buildings, how it’s designed affects how we behave and feel”
- “From the process and beginnings of interrogation and empathy, that’s when imaginative process kicks in.
- Ilse to her team — “We’ve got two eyes, two ears, and one mouth. We should use that in that proportion.”
I’ve actually seen most of her work in IKEA, ranging from differently room arrangements, to actual product designs. There’s always a variety to her design, but also a purpose. Definitely loved her segment about the touches she’s made to style and living arrangements.
Ralph Gilles — Automotive Designer.
- He grew up thinking cars were ugly in the 70s, and was drawn towards Chrysler after receiving a letter from them early in his career.
- He was the figurehead behind the Chrysler 300 — one of his best designs, which emphasized an entire culture behind the car.
Here’s some key quotes from Gilles I scooped on.
“Most designs have a theme line that holds all the design together.”
- “A vehicle can have a happy face or a mask. It has a soul.”
- “Competition drives design” — He often noted this since Chrysler is the smaller of the Big Three of the American automobile companies.
Nowadays, the automobile industry is under significant changes to move towards a more green-conscious society. Gilles mentions how the primary market is for millenials now, and attempts to solve multiple problems at once, with a focus on the living experience in the car (interior, look, feel, comfortability, autonomy).
Paula Scher — Graphic Designer
- She was a member of Pentagram — a group of the best designers in the world.
- She first worked in album covers in the 70s, then moved to a focus on graphic design & typography for the covers. The Public was her first typography work for theater in 1994.
- She emphasized on abstract emotional concepts to create physical paintings before the turn of the digital age: demographic/infographics, maps, charts, numbered portraits. Most of what she designs are identity systems and must be able to exist in lots of ways.
- Her Bring in da Noise, Bring in the Funk project — a group of popular typography designs for The Public Theater — blew up in 1995 in New York and everyone copied it. (One of the first examples of “Virality” in the design world)
- She mentioned how “Typography is painting with words… and you can create an identity for a whole based on the recognizability of type”. Like the font emotional descriptions based on height and weight: bold — strong, important, slim/serif — classical.
- The Reasonable Level of Expectations — One of the most important lessons I’ve gathered from her section, Paula Scher demonstrates how persuading others to adhere to your idea is a back and forth process.
Below are a list of key quotes she mentions in her interview.
“You have to be in a state of play to design, If you’re not in a state of play, you can’t make anything.”
“Design exists beyond screens, it has an impact on real life.”
“Design needs to take human behavior into account.”
“Designing the logo is not the hard part, it’s persuading people to use it.”
Most great typography works would never just allow you to read it, but to feel it and understand the message they share. I loved Paula’s take on all of this, which I why I shared her episode last on the list.
Conclusion
As a design enthusiast, I can definitely say that every episode had its own magnificent stories to tell, from the personal lessons and applied visualizations from Paula Scher and Christoph Niemann, to broad spectrum thinking and user experience thinking from Bjarke Ingels and Es Devlin. It’s crazy to see each of these designers and their stories on how they built themselves up as incredible leaders and creatives in their industries.
I hope these insights inspire you to watch the documentary yourself and create something new today.
Thanks for reading!
