Several iterations would birth far more brilliant ideas than just one
You keep asking yourself, “what other way would I have done this?” till you reach a considerably acceptable decision.
Hey guys! It’s been a minute! I hope you are doing good? I’m pretty chilled. I had a pretty chilled week as well, nothing extra.
Eil-il-Fitr is tomorrow, Eid Mubarak to my fellow Muslim folks reading this. May Allah accept our fasts and acts of worship performed during the Holy Month, and may He preserve our lives to witness the next insha Allah. Amin.
As I write this, my energy level is relatively high (you probably can tell from my tone lol, and if you can’t, well, nothing spoil). It may/may not be related to the fact that Eid is tomorrow and my Eid dress is ready and ironed. Anyhoo, I’m pretty excited to write this one today. So, ladies and gentlemen, let’s get to it!
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During the week, I watched a couple of movies (of course I did. No wonder my week was ‘pretty chilled’ lol). Of all the movies I watched, I picked an interesting point from two of them. Here’s what I coined from them.
First Movie: Abstract
I should probably start by saying, If you are a designer of any kind or an artist, then this is one movie you should definitely see. If you aren’t any of those, but you are curious about what goes on in the mind of Creatives —their thought process, how they birth ideas and designs, then you should probably see it too. And if you aren’t curious about anything design, well, I still think you should see it 😀
Now, back to the story. I watched the fifth episode of the series, Digital Product Design, and it centered around Ian Spalter— formerly Head of Design at Instagram, now Head of Instagram at Japan— and what it was like being in such a position.
He explained the process that went into ‘rebranding’ Instagram —from changing the logo to changing the entire interface of the app. This was a tricky process because whatever design they were going to come up with had to be and feel familiar, yet different.
So he told his team members to draw the existing Instagram logo by heart in 10 seconds. This was to get the most basic form of the logo, I suppose. Really interesting point and thought process if you ask me, but that’s not even where I am driving at.
So the team members drew so many sketches, and the recurring thing in all the sketches was a circle in a square. Since those shapes were recurring, they knew the design had to be something along that line. Now that is one point down. How about the colours?
The rainbow stripes had been a thing right from the first logo and had stuck as the logo ‘flattened’, so it had to be a part of it too. Remember, the new logo had to feel familiar. So they mixed the colour to form a gradient of what is now the Instagram logo.
Now to the real point I want to make. Before they came about the logo Instagram currently uses, they made so many variants of the idea; the next being slightly different and better than the previous. When they were done, the whole room was covered in different variants of whatever possibility the logo could look like; adjusting the gradient, combinations of shapes, or both.
They didn’t come up with the perfect logo with just one trial. In fact, not with 50 trials. You probably can already make out my point, which is, several iterations would birth far more brilliant ideas than just one. Because, with each new one you make, you make a slightly different (and better?) design decision. You keep asking yourself, “what other way would I have done this?” till you reach a considerably acceptable decision.
This is probably a no-brainer to some people, but it hit me really hard because I would rather spend a lot of time making one perfect thing, than making so many variants of that thing (as per I don’t like stress).
To further reinforce this new discovery of mine, here’s a story from a book I read last year —Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. The author explained that an experiment was conducted on two sets of pupils. They were given a task (to draw, if I remember correctly), and the first set was to submit the task at the end of the school term. All they had to do was read, research, watch videos, etc on how to perform the task, but to not actually perform it.
The second set, however, had to perform the task every day, till the end of the school term. When the results were compared at the end of the term, the set of pupils who repeatedly performed the task outdid the ones who only researched and read about it. Again, did someone say ‘repetition’? 👀
Now, does this apply to designers alone? I highly doubt so. I think this concept can be used in various decision-making processes. In fact, as someone who likes to apply an idea to different areas, I’m pretty sure this would come in handy a lot for me. I bet it will for you too.
Second Movie: Is It Cake?
At this point, I have been typing for hours, and I am re-thinking if I really want to start another journey. Since I already stated I would be discussing two movies, it is only fair I do as I said. On second thought, I did say I would discuss two movies, but not discuss both of them today (you really can’t win me in this game😅).
On a serious note though, I am pretty sure I wouldn’t explain/ give details as much as I would have loved to if I dive in now. So the fair thing to do would be to write about it in my next newsletter next two weeks.
So if you want to know what story or lesson I would coin from a movie about Cakes, well, you would have to wait till the next read. Now I sound like all those old Nollywood series like Super Story or This Life.
So, that’s it for today. I had so much fun writing this, and I hope you had as much fun reading it too. My excerpt from my read this week would be from the Holy Qur’an (more like reflections).
We should not be sad or angry whenever any good opportunity passes us by. For Allah knows what is best for us, and He is the Best of Planners.
— Al-Hadid.
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Have a great week,
Yosola,
Amazing 👏
Great read!