Creative Myths - The Wild Designer

What do designers do if they are left uncontrolled? They GO WILD.

I heard many times in my career that designers need very clear briefs, reference images and hard lines, or they will ‘do something wild’, they are creative beasts that will run amok if you are not careful.

If this really was the case, why do you have a design team? 

Why not hire a CAD technician that can just draw the brief? Can’t AI do it now without having to wrangle these wild pencil wielders?

Drawing the idea is only a fraction of what a design team can do, because designers are CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVERS.

Designers love guardrails, but they hate cages.

When they design, it is not for themselves, they are not trying to design something bizarre and niche, they are trying to solve problems that people don’t know they have yet.

I get it, the process can seem wild.

Any workshop full of creative people and it’s like a improv troupe on steroids.

We love to YES AND.

But this wild bit where they come up with more ideas and try a bunch of things? 

That’s intuitive stress stressing.

A good design is part fortune telling, beauty, utility and insight.

If a designer is only getting the business insight and isn’t able to add their cultural insight and their aesthetic and practical judgement, then no wonder they might bite your hand off.

Because in the end, the real risk isn’t letting designers run wild—it’s not letting them run at all.