Four to five times per year, PARK sends out a statement on design management to around 80 design directors and design managers throughout Europe. Many of them react whether they agree or not. See below one of those statements and a selection of their reactions…
STATEMENT
Design managers and directors must pay more attention to the writing skills of their designers, helping them to show as much finesse with their words as they do with their designs.
94% of the design directors and managers agreed!
“Could not agree more. Not only am I worried about the writing skills of my designers – it’s my own writing skills I am concerned about… One other dimension: good writing takes time. Texts benefit from being re-worked after a few days. What made perfect sense right after a heated discussion might be total gibberish in a different context. Alas, our fast-paced environments and their communication tools seem to prefer “quick-and-dirty” over quality, content and style.”
“I agree, on the condition that the statement applies to all forms of communication. If designers (or any other professional at that) are not able to communicate, how else are they going to convince, lure, manipulate, etc. others to make their dreams/ideas come true?”
“I noticed that many of our designers (internal / external) have a certain problems with ortography and getting the words right. I may be overweighting writing skills for myself. But it´s neccessary to write high level letters / informations to anybody who needs to be informed by us. This avoids misunderstandings and also makes clear that we designers are highly sophisticates indiviuums that are able to communicate both with normal working people and also any sort of leaders.”
“I think that this is also very undervalued by design agencies as part of the tool kit of design.”
“Of course I do agree. In many companies, good writing (and good speaking) is the only universal language which can make design serious and understandable. Because a designer or a design manager has obviously the ability to use drawings or sketches, or well chosen pictures, he has a powerful media in hand. But lacking in written or spoken explanations can destroy the first effect.”
”Very true. Although the required writing skills are not too far away from the design skills. It’s all about being able to envision concepts, visualize ideas in ones mind, and making that tangible. Either in visuals or in words.”
Tags: design skills
