Eric Karjaluoto, Creative Director at smashLAB in Vancouver, BC is asking his fellow design professionals to “Put Down Your Crayons.” He was provoked to ask this when his search for talent kept turning up the wrong kind of designer.
What most candidates fixate on isn’t necessarily what I can best put to use. Yes, I need someone who maintains a strong command of visual language, typography, composition, form, and all that good stuff. That, however, is only really one—rather small—part of what we do at smashLAB.
Want to know what I can really use? Thinkers. Yes, beyond anything visual, I need people who can look at a communication problem, and propose a way to solve it. The tricky part, is that what it takes to get from here to there doesn’t really look like design to most designers. I’m talking about research, analysis, organization of findings, non-linear reasoning, and the ability to write these things down. Further, I need people who can probe intelligently to achieve insight, and later articulate their thinking to those who don’t have much interest in design.
Sadly, a great many designers don’t feel like doing this kind of work. Instead, they want to be artists who only explore visually. I don’t blame them, but I do believe this bias leaves them missing out.
Concept is king. Execution is the King’s court. In design as in advertising, and pretty much any other business you can think of.
