Efficiency over craftsmanship
When the principles of design place a greater emphasis on optimizing efficiency over nurturing craftsmanship, a notable shift occurs toward industrialization.
During this transformative phase, in which creative machines perform increasingly complex tasks that were once the sole domain of designers, our unwavering commitment and abundant resources are purposefully directed toward fulfilling manufacturing demands.
We prioritize efficiency, aiming to streamline production processes and harness the potential of modern technology to support economic metrics with extreme effectiveness.
Efficiency can be a sound business strategy if you manufacture commodity products such as pencils, nail clippers, shoe laces, or cars. Creating a satisfactory template model and reproducing thousands of copies can save money and gain an economic advantage.
However, it’s a little different when you’re producing something intended to be a uniquely individual or collaborative experience that directly affects societies or influences human behavior, like targeted advertising, gamification of experiences, focusing solely on maximizing engagement and ad revenue. In that case, optimizing efficiency over craftsmanship can have bad results.
Unsurprisingly, this has happened to design when clients demand reduced prices with quick turnarounds, when investors demand high returns regardless of circumstances or consequences, and when “good enough” is the standard unit of quality, it is inevitable that craftsmanship will take a back seat.
“Designers are laboring under defective job descriptions and a limiting framing of the field. As a result, the outcomes we claim to be able to accomplish through design — business success by way of understanding and serving real human needs — aren’t happening as much as they should or could.”
Craftsmanship
Craftsmanship is the art of producing high-quality work through dedicated effort, skillful techniques, and meticulous attention to detail. In a creative context, it refers to using one’s imagination and talent to create something unique and valuable.
However, companies often overlook the importance of design and craftsmanship in favor of cost-effectiveness. This results in a significant decline in the quality of products and services, which can ultimately harm the consumer’s experience.
“Design conveys a sense of craft, a sense of dedication to best practices, and the intentional effort behind serving those who use the end state. Product conveys capital. It conveys an object to be sold. It conveys a unit to be moved, to generate upward momentum on a share price.”
The growth model of the 20th century requires designers and companies to achieve economies of scale. But in the 21st century, social challenges increasingly disrupting world markets changed the focus of the design processes. We needed to understand how to build eco-conscious design practices and engage with communities that have problems to leverage existing creativity and experience.
Room for error
We are pushed toward maximizing efficiency in a way that leaves no room for error, despite the room for error being the most critical factor of long-term success.
In a competitive world, opportunities must be seized before your rivals do so. Hence, every opportunity is exploited to its fullest potential at the earliest. This approach accelerates progress, but it also has an unpleasant consequence. When all possibilities have been exhausted, there is no room for error, and any system vulnerable to unpredictability and mishaps will inevitably collapse.
So many people strive for efficient lives where every hour is well-spent. But when no hour is wasted, you have no time to wander, explore something new, or let your thoughts run free — which can be some of the most productive forms of thought.
Psychologist Amos Tversky once said: “The secret to doing good research is always to be a little underemployed. You waste years by not being able to waste hours.”
A successful person purposely leaving gaps of free time on their schedule can feel inefficient. And it is, so few people do it. The paradox is that having room for error is crucial for long-term survival, but maximizing efficiency to eliminate the room for error can be essential for short-term survival.
Those who challenge this notion — whether they are companies, employees, or economies that are willing to sacrifice short-term gains for long-term survival — are seen as oddballs.
They often need to be fully comprehended and can be quickly criticized. Although they may underperform most of the time, they ultimately endure long enough to reap the rewards and have the last laugh, yielding the highest returns.
“In our fast-paced world today, we often forget the importance of patience and taking time to think things through. We want to remind people of the value of creativity and clever thinking, supporting a movement that embraces focus, skill, and understanding over fast production and short-lived trends. This doesn’t mean we’re against technology, but we’re asking for a balance between using technology and the traditional principles of design as a craft.”
Creativity
The advertising industry is where big successes are achieved through only two routes: generating great creative work or spending massive amounts of money. For those who aim for a grand success in advertising, the path forward requires an unwavering commitment to either one of these two strategies.
The more desirable approach is to create exceptional ads through great creative work. However, producing great ads requires excellent craftsmanship and is far more challenging than it seems.
As you may have noticed, roughly 95% of all ads are not original, inspiring, or influential. The same holds for books, songs, and paintings.
In his article “The age of average”, Alex Murrell argues that from film to fashion, architecture, and advertising, creative fields have become dominated and defined by convention and cliché. Distinctiveness has died. In every field we look at, everything looks the same.
The root cause of this phenomenon is relatively simple: Creative talent is a rare and valuable commodity, and it is not something everyone possesses.
As a result, our relentless focus on efficiency at the expense of craftsmanship has been tremendously damaging. We need to catch up on what brought us to where we are now.
It is time for us to recognize the value of creative talent and invest in it accordingly. Only then can we hope to produce truly outstanding and remarkable work that will leave a lasting impact.
— Thanks for reading.
I’m Bora, an independent designer exploring practical design knowledge, principles, design thinking frameworks, cognitive biases, and how to use design for good.
As designers, by expanding our knowledge, we can increase our impact.
