Archive for July, 2009

One of the most frustrating things for a designer to deal with is the unrealistic expectations that can be set upon them by both internal and external sources. Clients, account managers, and our peers can put a lot of pressure upon us to find the solution to the design the problem at in ever shrinking amounts of time. When faced with a time crunch or high set expectations, sometimes the only solution we can think of is searching for that mystical “spark” of inspiration. Eventually what we must come to terms with, is that the idea of inspiration most designers seek is really not a sustainable way of working and buckling down and getting something done is far more successful approach.

I am not normally a Boing Boing reader, but the video they posted yesterday of Matt Webb’s presentation from the Copenhagen Reboot conference really blew my mind. Matt discusses the role of the designer in the 21st century, which quite obviously is changing at such a rapid pace right now that any insight is extremely valuable. In the presentation (after the jump) Matt brings up the concept of the “macroscope” which I feel is the fundamental piece of knowledge gained from his presentation, and subsequently the subject of this article.