“Did you have to tell my teacher what you do?” my older daughter recently asked me, a few days after a community camp-out night at her school. I was a little bit perplexed by that question, and so I asked what had happened. She shared with me that now whenever she produces any kind of work for her class, her teacher would say something along the lines of: “Let’s see if you can do some iterations of that for next time. I learned that terminology from your dad!” In other words, she is asked to try to come up with additional variations of whatever she is currently developing. More work = less fun.
Being a designer, as a profession, is not exactly the same as being James Bond. While there are superficial similarities (I tend to work alone, I love gadgets, my missions are mysterious), my daily routine is everything but. The life of a designer is filled with countless insights on how not to do things, with fine-tuning details that no one but yourself will notice, and plenty of self-doubt along the way. Rinse and repeat.
I have noticed that when people casually ask what I do and I respond with “I am a designer”, it often evokes a gentle “Oh…?”, almost shy of disappointment. The only exception to this pattern occurs when the person asking is also somehow related to the creative field, no matter the distance, and then the conversation gains traction like a stuck object that just needed a little push to get going. Perhaps, by now, the term “designer” is so broad that it could just mean that I just pick out colors for a living. The irony here, of course, is that picking colors actually is a part of my design process. One of many.
So when the said teacher/mentor asked me what I do, I decided to share how I design artifacts, rather than what I design. Somehow, this must have stuck, as it made it back into my daughter’s classroom. The key element, as I described it and as I practice it, is the process of iteration. At every step along the way of designing any artifact, there are junctions where I evaluate the design and make a decision if and how it needs to change. This overall process can be time-consuming (it always is), ambiguous, and sometimes defeating. It is never easy.
I think though that, as a creative species, we actually like the process of conceiving and creating something new - at least I do - despite the challenges along the way. It is why we at BK embrace the mantra of “Trust the Process” so much, as it reminds us that we will eventually get to an outcome that resonates positively with our community as long as we practice the process of iteration along the way. The funny thing, for me at least, is that no matter how much I practice “designing”, it never really gets easier for me. And that is ok, it is part of the journey.
With my children growing into young adults, I have noticed that they need (want?) less and less of my input on how to do - well - anything really. So when I realized that my daughter’s teacher was able to implement a part of the design process into his class, I felt infinitely accomplished, and I decided to lie back and enjoy the fruits of my labor.
Except I did not have any time to “lay back” as I am working under a deadline on a new design for BK that was super fun to create (read: we had a lot of fun to come up with the ideas as I sketched them out), and now I just need to produce them (read: it is taking forever to gather my tools, once I started the colors were not right, now this is taking me forever because I keep changing my mind as I dive deeper into the process…). Iteration is what takes up 90% of my process. While I love it and I could do it forever, I too have to adhere to time constraints and deadlines.
The project is simple: We had this idea to create some vintage-inspired mailing labels that would come on a postage sticker tape and could be used alongside sending letters and postcards. As usual, the convo quickly turned into thumbnail pencil sketches and perhaps a few revised detail drawings. At last, once the ideas and the sketches are in place, I transition to creating the final artwork that will go into production.
I created two of the designs and loved them, and then I produced two more and was not as happy as I was in the beginning. I realized I had to redo the first one using a different color scheme. Here I was again, practicing to pick out colors. I also realized I did not like the layout of the second one and went back into my sketchbook. Still working on that one right now. I always feel that I need to produce the art in order to see what is wrong with it and hence what needs to change in the next version…
Trust the process.
Originally, we thought the name for this cute stamp tape would be “Mail More Love” to celebrate the idea of sending more snail mail to loved ones, and to make them feel more special and loved. Through the process of designing the individual assets, we realized that the simple act of sending “anything” to another person is super fun, regardless of how big or small, and no matter who the recipient is.
When we made little prototypes of the stickers, we wanted to use them right away. Plus, Wakako really liked the design that features our dog, Mango. Hence, we are settling on using “Special Delivery” as the name for this tape series, celebrating our love for analogue in the form of snail mail. And it is to me, in a way, also a very “special delivery” when I finish any of my design projects because of the lengthy journey that it, and I, went through.
If there were a shortcut to my design process, I would not take it.
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