DAY 038 – DESIGNING DANGEROUSLY
Make Certain Your Concept Is Active
Over the course of an academic year, I read dozens of design concepts. Most are fine, serviceable responses to the script. There are, however, a few that excite me and catch me off guard. They’re exciting because they tell me something I didn’t know before, reveal something in the script that it turns out has been staring me in the face. I have to imagine these are the product of one of two things:
The student who brought forward that conceptual response has something either in their history or makeup that made them attuned to this particular perception.
The student or students who worked on this actually did the leg work of killing off their first and second (and maybe third, fourth and fifth) ideas to get to something more resonant.
If it’s the first option, it’s a happy accident and can result in really natural work on that particular project, with no guarantees for next time. If it’s the second option, you have a better shot at prolonged success, but still no guarantees. I would propose that on the off-occasion that lightning truly strikes, it’s because you’ve managed to line up both of these. You have set yourself up and have the disposition to be “in the flow” on that project. My experience is that being in that place, right in the middle of that happy nexus of story and design, is a rare occurrence, but one that keeps me on the hunt, trying to get my kite up in that thundercloud, praying for lightning to strike.