Do Design summary

One thing’s for sure: it takes time, commitment, and practice to produce truly beautiful things. 

Consider how a piece of paper in the hands of an origami master can be reshaped into any number of exquisite forms – a swan or an orchid, for example. In unpracticed hands, it can’t even be folded into a simple airplane that can fly.

Of course, if a product is to be successful on the market, it will have to appeal to the people who buy and use it. The key to a successful and enduring business is designing beautiful products.

Beauty in design is less about aesthetic beauty and more about how well it helps us perform certain tasks. After all, there’s beauty in a bed that gives us a full night’s rest, even if we are unconscious when we use it.

When the comedian Bill Bailey was asked how he comes up with his jokes, he replied ‘I start with the laugh and work backwards from there.’

Designers have to do something similar. They begin with a vision of the result and work backwards to figure out what they need to do to make it a reality.

It’s no secret that inspiration has a will of its own. It always seems to hit us at the most awkward possible time, often right when we’re in the middle of something.

While we can’t control when inspiration decides to visit, there are a few things we can do to encourage the flow of inspiration and respond to it effectively when it does arrive.

There’s nothing wrong with taking inspiration from other designers and companies that are doing things you like – it’s called acknowledging a good idea when you see it.  

The first step is to identify other businesses that are popular or that impress you and ask yourself what it is they’re doing right.

When asked what the shortest poem he had ever written was, Mohammed Ali replied ‘Me, We.’ In two words, Ali captured the connection between the individual and the collective.

Lately, in the West, we’ve been putting a little too much emphasis on the ‘me’ side of the equation. While it’s true there’s no collective without the individual contribution of every member, we forget that the individual needs the collective just as much. Through collaboration, individuals achieve far more than they ever could do alone.

The biggest threat to the long-term viability of a company is a short-sighted, profit-focused approach to business.

If you want to design a business that keeps its momentum into the future, then you need to appreciate how all of its parts are connected. You need to be able to see the business, its place in the world, and its future in an overview.