Day One of the Design Indaba Conference, which runs in Cape Town from 25 to 27 February, saw a lively keynote address from Los Angeles-based designers Sean Adams and Noreen Morioka of AdamsMorioka, a design company that specialises in brands and marketing. The pair stressed their belief in the design community and that designers need support.
In his presentation, Adams focused on the issue of fear. “We always see the finished product of design beautifully projected but no-one knows the blood, sweat and tears that goes into creating the design. Psychologically fear boils down to protection – you’re trying to protect something. There are lots of phobias out there. For instance, there is neophobia which is the fear of something new.
“Then there is ideaphobia – the fear of ideas. You start a project and you have no ideas so you become fearful. For the 2006 Sundance Film Festival I experienced a complete block when trying to come up with a campaign. So I sat down with Sundance director Robert Redford, who likes to be shown ideas in visual form. I putt my storyboards in front of him but he had problems with my designs. Then he gave me a great piece of advice by asking me what I would come up with if the job wasn’t for Robert Redford. This freed me up completely and I returned to my original genesis idea, which was telling the story in one frame. So I used images like the Trojan horse, Icarus getting burnt by the sun and Moby Dick in the ads and posters. The tagline for the campaign was, ‘A story brought to life’.”
Another common phobia in design (or any other creative career) is that of enissophobia or the fear of criticism. “Ideas are curtailed by worry that the client won’t like your ideas. But life should be scary otherwise you’re living in a coma,” commented Adams.
Morioka made the point that designers should have fun in their work. “Sean and I started our company 15 years ago because we wanted to bring the delight and joy back into design. At that time there were people who loved us and an equal number who hated us. We even got hate mail saying our designs ‘sucked’. As important as creativity is, it’s more important to be an advocate of creativity. It’s essential to know what isn’t fun, such as clients who don’t respect us, doing work that I don’t care about and working with people I don’t like.
“So you have to know what is fun. Sean and I embarked on a fun project called Designologicus, a self-authored sociological study of design. We identified different types of designers, such the bad boy designer, the goth designer, the cowboy designer, the corporate designer, the Zen designer, the avant-garde designer, etc. I guess we were sort making fun of designers.
“My tip to designers is not to take yourselves too seriously. We’re all the same so don’t be obnoxiously arrogant. The reason creative people are better than anyone else is because they laugh more.”
At one point in their presentation Adams and Morioka paid tribute to Design Indaba founder and MD Ravi Naidoo, referring to him as “the Barack Obama of design, who goes around the world looking for the best speakers”.
Earlier in the day the Design Indaba Conference was officially opened by MD of Woolworths Retail Andrew Jennings, who said: “Innovation is often achieved with great design. So we need great designers and we need to promote them, hence our sponsorship of the Design Indaba. Growing great design means growing great designers and thereby impacting on the economy. Designers are the one inexhaustible resource we have.”
