It was a moving and powerful eulogy. Probably the most beautiful thing I've seen written about Jobs since his passing. One important takeaway for me was the quote:
“Fashion is what seems beautiful now but looks ugly later; art can be ugly at first but it becomes beautiful later.”
I've experienced this firsthand. I've been privileged to work with some great web designers. I've forced myself to wait a minimum of 24 hours before rejecting a design and it has always served me very well. Sometimes your first reaction is going to be negative but in a day or so it reverses. I am not certain why this is true but for me it's been a winning strategy.
I've forced myself to wait a minimum of 24 hours before rejecting a design and it has always served me very well.
I've just completed designing a logo for the project I'm working on. Lacking experts around me whose judgement I could rely on, I came up with the following creative process:
1. Come up with an idea and prepare a demo/prototype.
2. Show the demo to a few people around you, preferably those who have some semblance of taste, but they don't have to be experts. If you own a smart parrot, the parrot will do. Since you want to avoid disclosing your idea to competitors, those people should preferably be either close friends or ones who work in a completely different field.
3. Note their reaction. If it is silent or if they say something generic and don't go with an enthusiastic "WOW" in the first three seconds, they are unimpressed. Expect them to be unimpressed, but don't worry about it right away, because even if you showed them, for example, a Paul Rand-designed logo pretending to be your work, they would not recognize it either and would remain unimpressed (they are not experts, remember?).
4. Wait 24 hours. Then ask yourself if you are bothered at all by the disinterest of the people you showed your work to. If you are indeed bothered, it means that your intuitive/emotional brain is telling you that your work is not good enough and that you should go back to step 1. If you are not bothered at all, it means your work is as good as your intuitive judgement is, and you can move on.
The goal is to convince yourself that your work is good enough. Once you achieved that, the opinion of others doesn't really matter. I find this algorithm to be pretty efficient; it lets me hone in on a correct design within a week's time. Your mileage may vary.
Maybe it doesn't apply so much for visual design, but I often find that a negative reaction to a new concept or piece of software is better than a "meh" reaction. One example: I made a browser game a few years back, one of the early players posted a huge rant about how frustrating the game was, I fixed the design issues they raised, they grew to love the game.
So I tend to think that a negative reaction is often a sign you have something good, but flawed. You don't want people saying "yeah, that's kinda cool", you want them saying "OMG THIS THING SUCKS I'M TRYING TO GET IT TO DO X BUT I CANT BECAUSE IT DOESNT HAVE FEATURE Y" - at least in the second case you know you have something they want, and you know how to fix it.
But, my step 4. is slightly different. I also give them some time; and 24 hours is an excellent choice.
Now, I ask them to draw me the logo they saw the other day, and reiterate it in words. Depending on how they respond you should take action. If they can't recall it, you should start from scratch. If they can mention a few things, especially details, you should revision your work such that you make these very details even more bold and stand out. In the end, a good logo is something that is unique and well remembered.
Jean Cocteau, at least in one formulation & attribution
Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.
I have to agree with you about giving a design time to sink in. So many times have I been sent designs for me to start working and a few hours later they are sending me an email saying to stop work while they rework something. First impressions can be very powerful, good or bad, but I do think its important to not rush into an idea.
As for the eulogy, there have been so many amazing things said about Steve Jobs, my wife has been a massive Apple fan for a long time and when she read what Obama said there were a few tears.
Almost inherently, however, Jobs' creations were more aesthetically beautiful for their fashion and design trend than their art. In terms of usability, it's another area of continuous improvements, so the simplicity of a product has to be judged partially on the time of its creation.
Does anyone look at the Apple II and think it would be a beautiful design for a computer today? Or the orignal Mac? Or even the Steve Jobs 2nd go-around products G3? Original iPod? Original MacBook?
It is not a matter of hours or days, it is a matter of years and centuries. Bach is more beautiful every new century, so is Vermeer, so is Pride and Prejudice. It is the mark of a Classic, regenerated by each new generation.
But we are off-topic, this is again a Jobs thread, unless someone dare compare Sixtine Chapel (priceless) and an Ipad (expensive)?
“Fashion is what seems beautiful now but looks ugly later; art can be ugly at first but it becomes beautiful later.”
I've experienced this firsthand. I've been privileged to work with some great web designers. I've forced myself to wait a minimum of 24 hours before rejecting a design and it has always served me very well. Sometimes your first reaction is going to be negative but in a day or so it reverses. I am not certain why this is true but for me it's been a winning strategy.