What would Digital Design look like if we only had a limited amount of pixels? What can we learn from creatives working with physical materials?

1. 15 minute lightning presentation
for Digital Shoreditch 2015.
Video of presentation available at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=agZYtFOTpd
c

2. Sometimes my mind drifts when
writing emails. A while back I
wrote an email and misspelt a
word.

3. Without thinking about it,
I painfully selected
the wrong letter…

4. …and moved it to the right
position.

5. I caught myself doing this and
thought it was a rather curious
thing to do. After all it would
have been faster to delete and
rewrite. Or use auto-correct!

6. But who was I to condemn the
letter to deletion? After all I
had summoned it into my services,
it wasn’t the letters fault I’d
misplaced it.

7. Surely it was my responsibility to
fix any mistyping in an ethical
way without bringing harm upon any
typographical elements.

8. Obviously, that’s a silly thought…

9. …because the letter is not a
singular digital entity.

10. The letter is a combination of
pixels, which means it would be
the pixels I wouldn’t be
respecting if I had deleted the
letter.

11. I no doubt spent too long thinking
about this issue. But I kept
thinking.

12. What if there was only a limited
amount of pixels? We would have to
be more careful in our use of
them.

13. What if each pixel costs a penny?

14. £10,005.00
A single iPhone 6 screen would
cost around £10k.
How would that affect the way
Digital Designers work?

15. I decided to ask an artist friend,
Phuc Van Dang, aka Phucisme, about
his process creating physical
products.

16. Phuc produces art on anything from
paintings and drawings to
porcelain and photography to
fullsize wall art and performa
art.

17. A lot of surprising insight came
out of that conversation. I’ve
captured three core ideas that can
inspire Creatives in Digital space
to work differently.

18. 1.
Limitations Focus
the Mind on the Idea,
not the Execution

19. Phuc never starts the process with
the material and tools he will
ultimately use to create the final
product. It would be too expensive
and too time consuming.

20. That means Phuc gets the freedom
to focus on the idea in the early
stages, free of limitations by the
tools and materials.

21. Think about it: How often are you
asked to do a website or a mobile
app, rather than focus on the
business outcome first and then
determine the channel?

22. Using the tools that will deliver the
final digital product, such as
Photoshop or Sketch, presents scamps
with a degree of finish, ultimately
reinforceing the direction too early
on in the process.

23. Moving away from the tools that
will deliver the final digital
designs, gives you freedom to
explore the problem beyond the
direction given.

24. 2.
Simple Tools
Enables Creation.

25. Being unable to use the tools and
materials that will deliver the
final art piece during the initial
concepting stage means Phuc don’t
have to worry about choosing the
right tools or materials.

26. So he reverts to just pencil and
paper. This means he is very
competent with a pencil and
it is a natural extension of his
hand and mind.

27. He doesn’t have to focus on using
the tool.
He can focus on the idea and let
his mind’s intention flow freely
through the pencil in his hand.

28. Using computers and software you
inevitably adds layers of
restrictions:

29. First there’s the mouse-to-screen
disconnect. Then choosing the
right software. Then there’s the
set-up of the document Choosing
colours, fonts, filters,
functions…

30. Not to mention by using software
you are already being limited by
the choices made by the software
designers.

31. As soon as you sit down by your
computer, your mind is already
shifting to execution mode because
you are reliant on the tool, not
your skills + experience.

32. Your tools are getting in the way
of your creativity.

33. 3.
Limited Resources Nurture
and Mature Ideas.

34. In the Digital space we have the
freedom to create as many concepts
as we want as we are not using any
physical material.

35. Layers after layers of Photoshop
we churn through countless ideas,
one erasing the previous one.

36. The risk is we discount ideas too
fast and end up with a deadline
forcing us to select one idea out
of too many.

37. We just pick an idea without fully
understanding the potential of the
other ideas that has come and gone
and gone forever.

38. Talking to Phuc it became apparent
that working through early
concepts in physical space
produces fewer ideas, but they are
worked through more.

39. They are taken a certain maturity
level, simply because you can’t
keep drawing on a piece of paper.
At some point you have to take a
new piece.

40. But this process has two benefits:
it leaves a trail of progression
and the maturity of ideas explores
the potential better.

41. So when selecting the final idea,
it is based on understanding the
potential of all the ideas that
has been worked on.

42. The Road Ahead…
1. When generating ideas, step away from
tools you plan to use for the execution to
gain a higher view point.
2. Master a few, simple tools to allow you to
generate concepts without the tools
getting in the way.
3. Spend more time on evolving fewer ideas,
so you understand their potential and
choose the right one.

43. I will shut up now.
Any questions or comments please
feel free to reach out. I am
“Fransgaard” everywhere on the
web.