Dictionary.com describes designing as, “to plan and fashion artistically or skillfully.”
Grab a hold of that for a second. How does someone design their Journey? Wait… maybe you’re saying, “I’m not planning on a trek across the planet or stealing my way aboard an ocean-going vessel to see the seven seas before I die. What journeys are you talking about?” Well, just as any great writer knows, nothing hooks your reading audience like multiple dictionary definitions… I know but please stick with me on this one… it’s worth it in the end.
Journey – “A passage or progress from one stage to another.”
Our lives ARE a journey. This is a simple fact.
From the day we pop into this world until the day we slowly fade away, our
actions write a story that will be retold by those we leave behind. Unless you believe strongly in reincarnation
I’m sure you can agree with me that we only get one shot at life. Yours will be
full of mistakes, redemptions, successes, and failures. Life is so often a
series of actions which breed the memories we package together and call our
story.
This is why
I’m so passionate about doing everything within our power to shape those
stories with a design. I want to paint you a picture of the power of design and
how it can affect the quality of something. Please allow me to present the iPad
and Steve Jobs (rest his soul). The R&D team at Apple was asked to bridge
the gap between the iPhone and the Mac. Apple labored over the intricate
designing of the perfectly sized yet surprisingly fast tablet which had never
been designed before. They planned the keyboard to work in conjunction with the
screen size. They redesigned their processors to handle the increased
resolution without increasing overall weight. They even had the foresight to
re-design Angry Birds in HD. This being said, Steve Jobs knew he had to design
something else… the culture necessary in the American public which would make
this newfound mobile processing tablet seemingly as necessary as oxygen.
Through the careful analysis, study, and design of his product he slowly introduced products and ideals which made the public cry out for his product. Someone who had been completely happy with his or her laptop a year ago was demanding the iPad because the laptop was now too big and inconvenient for everyday tasks such as emailing, scheduling, and web browsing. Steve’s push for the global Wi-Fi created thousands of zones of internet access in which someone would be able to access the internet without needing to hook up though a hard line. Without each of these critical steps the release of the iPad would not have been as grandiose. But what happened? Within two months of its release on April 3rd the iPad had sold over 2 million units (or about 1.2 billion dollars). That’s pretty good, I’m sure of it.
Now, in relation to stories I’ve decided on the following illustration. Read these two stories, they relay the same night and the same story but in different ways. Take a look:
“There seems
to be some unique electricity in the air when October draws to a close in
Michigan. Have you felt it? Tonight, as I was finishing the sixth chapter of my
book, I watched the sun go down behind the sea of yellows and oranges which
danced over the dying trees before me. The blazer I was wearing had kept me
warm enough when the sun was up but now the chilling wind began to find me. I
felt those cold fingers dancing at the base of my spine as I walked the road
toward home. I pulled my blazer tighter to my body as I became lost in my own
mind thinking of ways to get warm once I got back. Maybe a hot shower… a cup of
steaming raspberry cocoa… no, I’d prefer if my darling wife were awake. I’d put
in a movie and we’d be sitting on our favorite couch as she pretends she isn’t
falling asleep with her arms wrapped around my chest. Each of these thoughts
put the faintest smile on my face as I continued on into the darkness and
toward the warmth of home.”
“I got cold as I walked home last night.”
What’s the difference? If you were a statician you probably are thinking the difference is 182 words. If you watched me write them both, you’d say the difference was about 5 minutes worth of writing. I say the difference is DESIGN. The first excerpt is designed to bring the reader in with details and emotion (I am not a writer though, so I’m not sure if it did that for you J ) while conveying a message. The second is just the facts of the journey. Sure the second one took less time, effort, and still got the idea that the person got cold and walked home… but who enjoys reading it?
That is the beauty of design. You use it to transform a life from the regular experience to something which can change the world.
