"Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration."
— Jeffrey Zeldman
I'd hate to start off sounding like a pessimist but when I read this quote I could not help but smile candidly. Deep down, all good designers know this. Whether you are an architect, a software user interface designer or a magazine layout designer, at the end of the day its always about content.
Good design teams always consider the content before the aesthetic. Notice I said "teams". As much as I find solo acts of pulling rabbits out of hats exhilarating it gets old fast...but to get back to topic...
Once you have the concept revolving neatly around the content the easy part of graphics follows suit. Without the content the appearance of what you are looking at has no meaning.
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Aside from the disappointing font size and weight in the above example, the concept speaks for itself. This ad speaks CONTENT! Need to strengthen your teeth? Never considered it before? Well consider it now because while you drive down that highway looking at that billboard your laughing the content 100km/hr right into the part of your brain that will remind you later when you look at yourself in the mirror and brush your teeth.
And for those of you who design websites for a living you all know this too well. It is always a dream come true when a client has a good understanding of what their business does and what they have to offer. Your initial meetings of acquaintance have a simple and graceful question and answer flow about it and off you go into your corner plugging away. But for the most part its a learning curve, for the client and even the designer. Either they never wrote a business plan, don't remember it or don't see how it relates to their new awesome modern pie-in-the-sky website 2.0.
So to sum up, the only thing that differentiates a good designer from a great one is Content. Communication is the first step of the design process and like it or not it comes up again and again and again throughout the process. The good news is that if you have clear content and have effective and diplomatic communication skills (with a little added patience) 99% of the time the process goes smoothly and you have a happy client telling others just how awesome you are. Just like content comes before visuals, a good designer can seperate stuff from fluff , gut feelings from well reseached trends, and save a whole lot of headache. I'm not saying we should all chuck our intuition out of the window (thats our well of creative resources) but in the modern craze that is the internet, where culture, business, religion and politics are transending daily, people need some solid ground to relate to - and that is why they need you.
Perhaps as designers, we should be following our own advise when taking clients through the process of any design project. Perhaps we need to re-evaluate our own methods of communication and focus on the concept of what needs to be said. How else do you get the client to understand you and your needs?
Its always about content.
Once you have the concept revolving neatly around the content the easy part of graphics follows suit. Without the content the appearance of what you are looking at has no meaning.
.jpg)
Aside from the disappointing font size and weight in the above example, the concept speaks for itself. This ad speaks CONTENT! Need to strengthen your teeth? Never considered it before? Well consider it now because while you drive down that highway looking at that billboard your laughing the content 100km/hr right into the part of your brain that will remind you later when you look at yourself in the mirror and brush your teeth.
And for those of you who design websites for a living you all know this too well. It is always a dream come true when a client has a good understanding of what their business does and what they have to offer. Your initial meetings of acquaintance have a simple and graceful question and answer flow about it and off you go into your corner plugging away. But for the most part its a learning curve, for the client and even the designer. Either they never wrote a business plan, don't remember it or don't see how it relates to their new awesome modern pie-in-the-sky website 2.0.
So to sum up, the only thing that differentiates a good designer from a great one is Content. Communication is the first step of the design process and like it or not it comes up again and again and again throughout the process. The good news is that if you have clear content and have effective and diplomatic communication skills (with a little added patience) 99% of the time the process goes smoothly and you have a happy client telling others just how awesome you are. Just like content comes before visuals, a good designer can seperate stuff from fluff , gut feelings from well reseached trends, and save a whole lot of headache. I'm not saying we should all chuck our intuition out of the window (thats our well of creative resources) but in the modern craze that is the internet, where culture, business, religion and politics are transending daily, people need some solid ground to relate to - and that is why they need you.
Perhaps as designers, we should be following our own advise when taking clients through the process of any design project. Perhaps we need to re-evaluate our own methods of communication and focus on the concept of what needs to be said. How else do you get the client to understand you and your needs?
Its always about content.
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