CNN has a great article up about how Finland is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Fiskar’s iconic design of scissors. It’s a fascinating story that I had not heard before. I knew that Finnish companies were strong at design generally but this one blew my mind.
It gave me a great opportunity to think about how I incorporate design into my work. Design isn’t just about the look of the PowerPoint deck or the branded colors in use. Much like Fiskar’s biggest breakthrough was in the materials they used, design is often about the unnoticed things. The best design slips past your observation.
Design is about making sure that your bullets are written to match and are the same length.
Design is about ensuring you have edited yourself down to the things that actually matter.
Design is about choosing the method in which you communicate, not everything has to be email and PowerPoint.
Design is about choosing what you don’t communicate.
Design is how you tell the story of your problem or solution. There’s a reason that they say a good story is well designed.
Everyone does design, not just marketers and graphic designers. We are all responsible for telling the story of our work. The message, medium, audience, and tone are all part of the design considerations we have to think about. It’s not just look and feel.