The Evolving Design Manifesto

"There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect."
~Gilbert Keith Chesterton

attention: Radical Ideological Optimism Alert

I try hard to behave as if the world were like this.

My clients know more about their business than I do.
Effective design unites function, beauty and useful content.
Beauty for beauty's sake is art. Just because something's pretty doesn't mean it's well designed.
I know more about effective communication than my clients do.
To design effectively, designers must be immersed in their subject. This makes spec work impossible.
Trends contain much a designer can learn from, and much one should avoid.
Design for usability doesn't mean design for idiots. Good design eliminates guesswork and encourages critical thinking.
Creativity, freely shared, begets creativity, for this reason I only use open source software and Creative Commons compatible licenses.