Boxes And Arrows : The Design Behind the Design

Making the Invisible Visible: Process, Inspiration and Practice for the New Media Designer

by Steve MacLaughlin on 2002/06/23 | [10 Comments]

Curtis begins by teaching readers the “Process” his company, hillmancurtis, inc., uses to produce some of the best New Media projects in the industry today. The process consists of seven steps: Listen, Unite, Theme, Concept, Eat the Audience, Filter and Justify. Each chapter in this section of the book takes an in-depth look at each step of the process. Curtis notes that steps often mix and overlap in order to get everything moving in the right direction.

The Listen step involves gathering as much information about the client and product as possible. Although Curtis stresses the usual point that there’s no such thing as a stupid question, he goes one step further. The Listen step also means searching to understand the story behind the company. According to Curtis, knowing “the company’s history, its points of pride, its shortcomings, and its core values is pure gold.” (p. 28)

The Unite step might sound like some warm and fuzzy client love-fest, but Curtis’ recommendations are right on target. He reminds New Media professionals to involve the client early and often during the planning stages of the project. “The more respected a client feels, the more secure he’ll feel with your work and the less he will feel the need to watch your every move, thus giving you more freedom as a designer,” (p. 35) writes Curtis. Keeping the lines of communication open takes discipline, but the results pay off in the end.

“Our challenge as designers is to target a given project’s theme and use it as a guide that will influence every design decision we make, from the initial concept to the final composition.” (p. 41) That statement basically sums up MTIV’s attitude towards targeting a project’s Theme. And drawing a target is literally what Hillman Curtis recommends doing to hit the mark. He explains a simple exercise that can help you zero-in on the target and direction of the project.

Curtis draws a comparison to Pink Floyd’s The Wall album to illustrate the power and importance of the Concept. “Think of it this way: a concept is an idea. Our job as designers is to visually explain that idea.” (p. 57) Sketches, storyboards, and keeping your eye out for great ideas are the best ways to explore different conceptual possibilities. Along the way you solicit feedback from other members of the creative team and the client to create the right soil for good concepts to grow.

The Eat the Audience step is meant to remind designers that the audience needs to be included in the process just like everyone else. This is especially true in New Media design where the user is often unseen. Curtis discusses how to conduct “poor man’s focus groups” and other activities to find out more about the project’s target audience.

Both the Filter and Justify steps involve the compromises and streamlining needed to get the best end result. The limitations and constraints of bandwidth, browsers, plug-ins and countless other obstacles are challenges that New Media professionals must constantly deal with. Curtis looks at them as a way to “filter” out non-essential elements from the design. To further pare down the design you need to be able to “justify” it to the rest of the team. This step acts as the final checkpoint in the process.

Now, all the great processes in the world are useless without good execution. You have to combine know-how with inspiration to get the best results. MTIV’s second section is devoted entirely to demystifying the notion of “Inspiration.” For Hillman Curtis, inspiration “is the air we breathe to fuel our creative progress.” (p. 104) While this sounds very ethereal, Curtis is also quick to point out that there’s no such thing as divine inspiration. New Media professionals walk down a creative path filled with ideas and examples, and on this path they can’t help borrowing and sharing some of the things they find along the way.

Curtis explains how he constantly immerses himself in design books and magazines. “It’s all part of my ongoing effort to draw from the work of others. Finding in design books, perhaps, great starting points; or from movies or their titles, blueprints; or from poems or fiction, maps to follow.” (p. 113) Along the way, you piece ideas together until you reach a flash point where inspired creativity takes over. While reading MTIV you can’t help but notice how much Hillman Curtis has been influenced by the motion picture industry.

The “Practice” section of MTIV goes on to show what happens when proven processes meet inspiration in a design setting. Hillman Curtis likes to refer to it as “a sort of ‘Everything I ever wanted to know about New Media design basics but was afraid to ask’ section.” (p. 15) It includes a thorough review of everything from color theory to typography, and designing for the Web, broadcast and print mediums. Well-known professionals like Steve Krug, Katharine Green and Joseph Lowery make guest appearances to chime in a on a variety of topics. This section alone would have made a fine book of its own.

Hillman Curtis’ minimalist approach to design also appears to be his approach to writing. In just a few words he captures the essence of what it means to be a New Media designer and what it takes to push into unknown territory. Curtis passionately believes that “New Media design is a new frontier. It’s like the Wild West -full of pioneers who’ve traded their old professions for the wide open space of new possibilities.” (p. 138)

“Making the Invisible Visible” is a 240-page nonstop sensory experience, from the introduction to the index. At first I wondered if the book was all style and no substance, but Curtis hooked me after the first few pages. I found myself constantly commenting on how on-target his observations were, and how no other book has really captured what it means to be a New Media designer like MTIV does. I highly recommend this book to those in the profession who are looking for a spark to ignite their skills.