【ADP Column】“Cross the Line – or Control the Border?” by ADP Adviser Gideon Löwy
2018.03.19
Our Adviser Gideon Löwy writes an article to share his opinion about “Cross the Line” - the topic of ADP Design Tour.
Let's see how does Mr. Löwy think about it.
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Prof Gideon Löwy, Adjunct Associate Professor of Design, Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship
President of Scandinavian Designers Studio in Taiwan
2018.03.15
All of life and design can be viewed as a balance between Risk and Reward. Conceptually, “Crossing the Line” in design, represents a creative quantum leap across the border into unknown, new - or at least unexplored – territory. This is the most exciting place to be for a designer; but the most uncomfortable for a client. Every good project has its Rubicon –called 破釜沉舟 in Chinese or 背水の陣 in Japanese. “Crossing the Line” suggests taking the challenge of a big risk in order to gain the opportunity for an even bigger reward. Two motives can push us to cross the line: courage and calculation, at best a wise combination of both. The consummate Designer typically reframes their projects in a light that makes radical – if not disruptive - change attractive. Indeed, in today’s exponentially transforming environment we perceive the risk of conformity to be greater than risk of creativity. But it is not always so, as the financial failure of countless award winning designs the world over go to prove.
Endless films, books, reports, articles and advertisements tote the rewards today’s heroes and heroines have won by “Daring to Dream - and Act - Big”. “Just Do It” they encourage us - “Imagine the Impossible”! But in reality we know that for every successful venture there have been a hundred failures and for every Apple or Uber, thousands. We tend to notice, remember and recount the remarkable, not the ordinary. Every client wants the reward of “Wow!” but are they actually prepared to pay for more than the calculated risk of “Me Too …”? Indeed, today’s new generation of Computational Designers formulate their designs not as plans, but as algorithms that turn unknown risks into calculated rewards.
As designers, at the outset of every project we fight hard to smuggle in at least a little moment of greatness, a small rush of excitement as we feel the “Wings of the Zeitgeist” stir our imaginations. Budgets and Profit however, stay mainly on the safe side of the line, only exceptionally jumping the fence. The truth is that though our clients love the rewards of working with us, they fear the risk more. In the end, it is the Business Rationale of “Control the Border” that governs the balance between Risk and Reward.
Even the most famous film stars take roles in “B” and “C” movies so they can afford to play the parts they really want to act, when the opportunity comes along. In this Age’s “Massive Rush Forward into the Void”, greatness is definitely promised those lead the way over the line, and when to be “Outstanding” and to “Stand Out” are the best bets, we are certainly given big budgets and free reign; but since a tighter global economy rule in most markets outside China now, only few of us are given the necessary resources to “Cross the Line” anymore.
