dive deep
sleepy today, i finally did forge though! HA! so i've been wonderin with nice weather coming along i need to find more ways to do less pc crap and more design crap. must do more.
Where does imagination rest? Is it before the cognative process, does it spawn that process? Would consider imagination more important than reason or why? Marketers vs Researchers, i hear about this debate often. Markerts want x and researchers want xy. Maybe marketers are just like researchers other than the fact they just dont wanna wait. Where does the leap of ideas come into play. Sometimes finding the why is only so so to me. Creating the why via ossmossi is more interesting. I remember having this debate once at ADV, do you wanna see a movie cause yer attracted to the genre of the movie or are you simply told you want to see it. The art of propganada can be compelling at times, what are you really hopeful for, the movie or the fact you completed the circle of spin? My point at the time was a conumdrum. I do that alot, i see that yes and the no and sit on both sides locked in debate. Both sides have a point but which side has .1% more of a sway?
Part of me thinks given the right set of materials I can sell you anything, I can find the right niches to get you to pay attention to it and buy it. Maybe not everyone but I could get x% based off marketing alone. Ideally we'd want customers to come to us with little or no marketing effort. Like a bond flick, you yer assured x market will attend it, its a bond movie. But what about Fish Warrior 9, what does it take promo wise, marketing wise, spin wise to make Fish Warrior a household name and you demand the notion of seeing it where odds are yer really not that interested. I used to ponder this alot at ADV. Andy and I would get into debates on how people really knew what a good flick was, what kinda merits does a good flick have. Can a promo campaign be "honorable" to the point where it says "dont look at me" and in fact thats the plan all along to lure folks in. We always wanted to have the right approach. A good flick rests on the shoulders of its own success. Good characters never die, they live on and spawn sequals.
Or do they?
Can you construct hype? Can you construct, project, desire, interest? Can you make a need out of thin air? Don't we do it all the time? How do you research that? Part of it rests inside the gene of mystery. Not everyone will be pulled but if you can yank x into the party and y knows x but doesnt care for you, they may go just cause x went, z goes in cause they hate x but they know y so what the hell. I look at design products the same way, and often causes a conflict at work. Can a designer hit a home run without research? Without diving into the process of x,y,z understanding what are the odds of you hittin the mark, to what degree of focus or non-focus do ya need, is the product a niche or something so common its nuff said.
Maybe designers without research should focus on nuff said concepts so obvious the idea of enabling a product is the research itself. Part of me thinks what good is it to overthink creation. Its like fine tuning spontaous creation or art. How do you judge rain? How do you justify snow? How do debate a rainbow? Deep!
Can you do research for the reasons of just research? I say yes. Can't you explore without having the need to explain what you've explored? Cant you sing without an audience or just to sing? I think its poor measure to limit the desire to know without purposeful intent. Research is to understand the whys right? So to understand the whys shouldnt research be the first to let go? Should'nt research be the first one at the party willing to dive in and do it all? Can't fly, so what lets try.
Turn to page 142 in this months Metropolis and see the magical construction of a wonderful house, holy crap! (june 2004 issue). Alot of research is just like morpheous states it: "there is a difference between knowning the path and walking the path". So true. Maybe research is more about finding and containing it in such a way that it can be explored thru other mediums, analyzed and consumed. Yet the essence of what it is much more than that.
Alot of the ultra cool interiors i see in metropolis look awesome but i'd never use them. Its that oozing style meets utter grace from god and ends up as unsable print only material. Haha.. i hate seeing a space more daring than usable. More clean than possible. I understand research and its place but its when research gets a chip on its shoulder that it bothers me. Its when research tells me why im singing in the shower that makes me wonder. Or tells me I can't explore to just explore, or tells me i can't research without purpose. That breaks all the conventions that fosters good research, fun, flexible, honest, insightful, awe, understanding, open... allow yourself to be guided by what happens, dont wish for the end, you'll construct it and thus your research is invaild.
Losing color, that's what I fear.
Losing the balls of color. He who stands on the desk of reason and says "fuck yeee all, i am zebra!" that to me has much more power than any research. Part of what drives a user is that breakout message. Its fearless, its zebra baby. Maybe research shouldnt be about finding the x, y and z, it should be about finding the influencers of x y z, or better yet the notions of why there are influencers of x y z.
Harvesting cool, I want that gig.
Another thing that bothers me, out of all the things in this beautiful blue world. New York, why are all the design conferences in NY?? I hate that. So us beaver country folk can't do art, design, or concepts? Thats B'Frickin S!
Realize of course that i'm making sense 25% of the time with 75% of it being a ramble.