Design is Messy

Following OFFSET’s first ever outing to Sheffield, we catch up with three speakers about their shared themes of making a mess and learning from your mistakes.

Design is often not a clean,  cut-and-dried process. True creativity emerges from conflict, experimentation and, crucially, making mistakes.

Three speakers in particular explored the topic from different angles during the two-day OFFSET conference in Sheffield, and we caught up with them afterwards to explore their thoughts further.

“Making a mess is essential,” insists Moving Brands creative director Darren Bowles. “If we try and modularise and package creativity, it will be lesser for it.

“As much as I love a Vitra-furnished, colour-coded library environment, I want a messy space at its heart,” he adds. “Creativity is a messy process with a beautiful result. And if we don’t allow for mistakes and playful pursuits, we get something banal and obvious.”

Irish illustrator Steve Simpson agrees: “The creative process has become cleaner and faster as the hands-on craft has been superseded by apps,” he observes. “It’s easy to make design without leaving the computer these days.