“It takes time to create excellence. If it could be done quickly, more people would do it.” – John Wooden

I love food and design. While they’re usually about equal, food has definitely taken a front seat since my husband and I recently relocated to Beijing, China. Dumplings first, design quandaries after.

Since eating and designing my way through the Far East, I’ve become more aware of the vast differences between doing things fast and doing things slow. Fast food in the States (and increasingly here in Beijing) draws us in with its alluring blend of convenience, speed, and salivation-causing scents, yet in reality it doesn’t edify. It’s a temporal and easy answer that promises deliciousness but delivers nothing more than chemical substitutes for the real thing.

I believe we get similar results when we settle for canned, fast design. In this profession there are deadlines and clients that often push us beyond our comfort zones. There are times when you have to produce….and produce something good. Those are the times when it’s easy to pull up a canned design, one that dazzles and sells, but is not true excellence. In China I’ve seen many spaces that I would put in this category. It’s easy to fall for them. They have an alluring blend of iconic visual interest, can be delivered quickly, and possess a definite flash of great inspiration. Yet upon closer examination you will find that they lack substance and do not justly serve the surrounding context or humanity that will be using them. Like fast food, this type of fast design draws you in, promising something beautiful and enriching, but fails to deliver.

Fast food and fast design aren’t good for you.

It can be difficult to trade fast for slow. Carl Honoré speaks on the difficulties and benefits of incorporating more slow into our fast lives in both his book, In Praise of Slowness and with his TEDTalk. But how do you accomplish slowness in design? I believe that there are several ways to pursue great, slow design:

  1. Be purposeful
  2. Let context drive you
  3. Take time
  4. Think. Not just once at the beginning, but repeatedly throughout the process

Great design isn’t easy. It takes something out of you: time, energy, effort, creativity, and heart. But the good news is that as creative professionals we have the capacity to give all of those…and give well, creating great places and legacies that are not fast and futile, but slow and enriching for those around us.

Further thoughts for your own design quandaries:

How Would You Like Your Graphic Design? Colin Harman
The Slow Society
What Great Design Is and Isn’t. Olivier Blanchard

 

Guest Blog Series

At Cadence we love sharing opportunity and looking at things through a different set of eyes. So it is our great pleasure to debut our first guest blogger, Leah Chambers. A fellow designer, great friend, and fabulous cook! Follow her on Twitter @Chambermader or read up on more at her personal blog. Stay tuned for the next post of our guest blogger series.