Design is a secret society with no secrets. Everyone thinks they can do it and everyone has their own opinion on what is good, good to them anyway. The weight designers bare is that of people critiquing something they have created from the depths of their mind. Lately I’ve been seeing a trend of lashing out on sites like Under Consideration. Not by clients but designers. Designers who are thinking they could do better without knowing the brief, without sitting in all the meetings to discuss the small changes that could be stripping out what made the project beautiful.

I was massively surprised when Johnson Banks released there concepts and initial works for Mozilla on forums. Openly showing how they were tackling the project. See below.

At first, I looked at the concepts and thought. These are weak. Not up to the Johnson Banks standard. I was viewing them as finals when they weren’t. They were working ideas, with everything up for discussion. I didn’t criticise them publicly. I held my opinion in. This week I saw the fruits of their labour (See here) and I was still a little unsure.

It wasn’t until I saw how the branding would develop when entering the real world I started to sit up and take notice.

The branding feels right, it fits and its exciting. I was so quick to judge when I saw the original designs that I feel I have a new appreciation for the beginnings of a brand. I think we all need to take stock and see how a brand develops and feels before we judge. The new Premier league brand from Design Bridge looked great, then Dixonbaxi took it to a new level with the digital application. It’s only when something has the space to grow that I think we see the power in what it can start to become.

If you would like to delve deeper into any of the points raised in this piece feel free to drop Carl a message.