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David Blatner defines design in his latest weekly posting on Linked-In. It seems good enough to me so I decided to share it with you. It’s not earth shaking, and has nothing to do with spiritual reality. But my hope is that you find it helpful.

David Blatner defines design

What is design? Design is not about making stuff look pretty. It’s not about making it “pop” or look cool. Design, at its core, is the practice of enhancing and improving communication. That is, you want to get a message from your head or heart to someone else’s head or heart, and design is how you package it up in order to make it transmit as smoothly and accurately as possible.

Bad design causes friction and confusion; good design leads to ease and clarity.

Bad design distracts or hides; good design focuses and reveals.

This applies to any kind of design: graphics, typography, architecture, music, video, fashion, signage, and more — each medium offers its own unique opportunities for enhancing and improving communication. A song, a painting, a business card, a presentation, a social media post, a book… these are all packages that work better when they’re designed better.

This is important because you are a designer, even if you don’t think you are.

You design how you talk about something, you design the food you prepare, you design the photos you share. So: design is easy, but good design is hard. Good design requires clear thinking, an understanding of psychology, and often a surprising amount of technical skill.

For example, take graphic design. We use graphic design to improve and enhance communication, so it encompasses accessibility (enabling that message to reach more people), color smarts (being clear how color is perceived and reproduced), data visualization (converting raw numbers to intelligible graphics), and much more.

You want your house pipes to flow better? Call a plumber. You want the electricity to flow? Call an electrician. But if you want your ideas to flow smoothly, easily, and with clarity, it’s time to [call or •ed.] become a better designer.