Design Feast Series: Designer’s Quest(ionnaire)

Paul Buck and Ela Kosmaczewsk

Founders of Zerofee, An Ethical Design Agency

Primary design concentration:

Graphic Design

Most preferred tool for designing:

Brain, eyes, ears, voice, hands, a clear brief (if only in your head). These cannot be substituted, all other tools can.

1. How and why did you choose to become a designer?

[Paul] I grew up making things that, looking back, were little design projects. Little leaflets, folded formats, bookmarks, badges, etc. I should do more of that for myself now. I liked to draw, very badly, but also developed a fascination with computers and was lucky enough to have a Commodore 64 at age eight (in 1982, that was more significant than it is now). Contemporary graphic design is an ideal profession for someone wanting to combine all of those things. I studied design communications and maths/physics prior to graduate education and, since I was pretty bad to the point of failure at the latter, design was the only way to go.

[Ela] I spent a lot of time making stuff as a kid—paper and felt-based ‘creations’. Post-school, I discovered a sensibility for drawing and painting, but an art & design foundation course only left me confused so I stepped away from the creative industry entirely. Years later, an incidental introduction to Macs and Painter software left me in no doubt I’d found my calling. A creative computer graphics access course and graphic design degree opened my mind to the breadth of possibilities ahead. Alongside illustration, typography, words and meanings became my passion.

2. Challenges you encounter as a designer and how do you deal with them?

[Paul and Ela] Apart from the inevitable challenge of developing aesthetically and conceptually sound work in often short timeframes, there’s always the requirement to negotiate and have respect for your client’s fears and personal pressures. Being determined and capable of doing that, in a helpful and professional manner, is an enormously important part of producing design work that even approaches ‘successful’. This is particularly true when running your own practice, since it is balanced against the need to retain the income associated with the work—in other words, to carefully weigh your desire to produce successful work that you can be proud of against alienating your client through the process of achieving it. That’s an ongoing process of refinement for our company—each project improves your ability (and not just in design terms) to achieve a design outcome that we’re happy with, without any compromise to the client’s wishes.

The absence of a formal brief is often a challenge, since it leaves the designer without a clear point of reference. It’s also an opportunity, since the development of a brief by a designer, in response to the lack of one from a client, can be an excellent way to form a dialogue between the two parties and get everyone thinking openly about the task at hand. The Design Council sets out some useful pointers.

It used to be the case that, before Zerofee, there was often a struggle to rationalise the requirements of the client with the requirement for us as unempowered, employee designers to professionally respond, when the purpose of the result would be to help achieve something negative, actively deceive or, at least, distract from something harmful that the particular company or brand would be undertaking. Oil companies, cigarette brands, arms manufacturers and brands that foster and thrive on people’s insecurities—all of them have crossed our desks in other small agencies where it is difficult to distance yourself from such work without losing your job or compromising your colleagues. That’s just one of the reasons we started Zerofee and have successfully left the dilemma behind ever since.

Adhering now to a principle of avoiding unethical clients can be a challenge. Apart from the financial opportunities that have to be ignored, there’s significant effort involved in determining their ‘ethics’, itself a sometimes subjective term—the business practices and underlying relationships of any prospective client that we have a chance to work with, so that we can avoid involvement if necessary. Sometimes it’s an easy conclusion to draw, other times there can be less clarity and, therefore, more research effort required.

3. Your definition of an “elegant solution,” that is, good design?

[Paul and Ela] At a recent presentation, Harry Pearce of Pentagram drew what we understood to be a chess analogy—‘design with the least moves possible’—which we felt succinctly expressed a worthwhile principle for successful design. It might not always be possible (or appropriate) for a multitude of reasons but, as a philosophy, coupled with careful, appropriate conceptual consideration, it’s always going to be a recipe for ‘good’ design since it streamlines the result aesthetically and brings the requirement for strong ideas to the fore. A variation on ‘less is more’, but with acknowledgement of the differing conditions of each design brief. We wish we could say that we have always been able to adhere to that principle, but we can say we’ll always, increasingly, strive to do so.

On the subject of ‘good’ design, the term is, to a degree, subjective and, we believe, necessary to understand in aesthetic, functional and moral/ethical terms. We’d struggle to readily call a beautiful corporate social responsibility report for a polluting, lying, careless energy company ‘good’ design, for example.

4. From skills to values, what makes a designer successful?

[Paul and Ela] Again, ‘successful’ is a subjective term. Ideally, success for us would be to design effectively for worthwhile causes and responsible clients and have that work respected by our peers. Those objectives are formed by the values we hold as people.

Empathy is important, as a designer needs to be able to have a feel for their client’s needs and intentions, and the audience’s sensibilities, since they’re not always formally communicated at the outset of a project.

We think it’s important for any designer to be able to firmly hold and clearly express conviction in the work they produce, even if it is just at an aesthetic level. Almost any work we deliver that we’re proud of will be a result of negotiation with the client we’re working with, as well as one another. Client negotiations are carried out in person, over the phone and in writing, so all of those skills are extremely important, but often overlooked—particularly writing. Essentially, become skilled at honestly rationalising, convincing, arguing (or debating, if you want a more polite phrase).

5. How do you stay motivated and grow personally and professionally as a designer?

[Paul and Ela] That’s one of the major challenges for a practising designer, in our experience. The desire for and focus on design can ebb and flow depending on personal or professional circumstances—as owners of a small design practice, it is easy to find your design time diluted by the practical requirements of the business, the finances or the politics of your professional relationships. In order to remain inspired and motivated, it’s extremely important to be involved in the design community, even if only at a distance, through publications, books, websites. Do a project for free for a local, under-appreciated organisation of some kind—most of the time, the outcome and responses you will receive will thrill and humble you, proving that design can and does make a difference to people, and not just in terms of their financial/material well-being.

Teaching and mentoring—something we’d like to do more of—is something that always fires us up. And terrifies us. It’s extremely important to pass on your experience to those following into the industry because, we’d bet, we’d all have liked more insight and help during our early experiences as designers, particularly when confronted with the reality of entering the workplace.

6. For those aspiring to become a designer, whatever the discipline,what is your advice?

[Paul and Ela] Again, have conviction. You’ll have set-backs, be challenged, maybe work in terrible places for people you don’t like on projects you hate. Don’t give up. If you work hard and have a defined set of values—in your philosophies and craft—you’ll find your way to somewhere you feel good about eventually. Don’t get overly influenced by design fashions—you will, of course, but try to come to your senses from time to time. Stay alert to other’s work and find some benchmarks to aspire to. Learn to write well—it’ll help you communicate with and gain respect from your clients. Turn your attention away from commercial work when you can, and give your skills to someone or something that would benefit from your expertise, but wouldn’t normally be able to afford your involvement. Make the outcome as beautiful as possible, too. Prove to people outside your industry that design has an important role to play outside the service of commerce.

Oh, and read David Berman’s book Do Good Design—something we haven’t got around to doing as yet but, by all reliable accounts, is an excellent manifesto which you can ultimately agree or disagree with, but at least it will be somewhere in your mind.

7. What is your quest in design?

[Paul and Ela] To create increasingly strong design solutions ‘with the least moves possible’ in the service of worthwhile or, at the very least, minimally harmful objectives (in the case of commercial projects). Zerofee would like to prove that ‘good’ design work, in all its definitions, can be delivered in response to diverse challenges without having to service the needs of those who put profit before people and the environment. In educational terms, we’d like to be able to have some impact on the perspectives of graduates entering the industry—to motivate them to at least question the industry and the work they agree to undertake. Finally, to not ramble on so much when someone kindly invites us to answer seven questions about design.

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