Enemy of The Great

Design is a field that looks to generate interest and profess originality. In doing so we seek to push the boundaries of things as it's the easiest way to immediately suggest that something is new or different. Sometimes clients are reticent to make these leaps with us. Well, sometimes the clients are right.

Occasionally it makes sense for certain companies or products to fall in line with their competitors. How "out-of-the box" do we want our engineering firms to be? How far on the outskirts of sanity are people comfortable with in terms of a construction company or a pharmacist. These are the kinds of clients that still require a high level of professional design service, but likely are not looking to completely reinvent the field or disrupt entirely our way of thinking about what they do. Designers are many times disappointed in this. They come up with ultra unique names and designs for places and products that very well may have worked, but the clients move towards something that's vaguely generic or what is in their view safe. Designers then throw up their hands to the design gods.

Perhaps we need to take a step back and not let the good be the enemy of great. Sometimes doing good work isn't settling. Sometimes doing good work will be the building block for future great work on behalf the client. Doing good work can build trust in your ability to then do great work.Greta work needs to be an option, but good work is a spectacularly legitimate solution.

After all no one has ever failed on the back of "only" doing good work.