Rob Goodlatte

Architecture and graphic design share many objectives despite differing greatly in constraints and canvas. I find comparisons between mediums useful to re-frame design problems. In that spirit, here are two lessons we can take from the field of architecture:
Embrace Constraints
Architects face a set of complex and burdensome constraints absent from many other design disciplines. Un-breakable rules that shape every project an architect will touch—physics. Buildings must not collapse. An architect cannot design a building whose foundations are on the roof. Despite this defining constraint, architects produce an incredible variety of unique work…

A graphic designer faces few natural constraints imposed by the medium itself. Imposing constraints on your canvas is a neccessity for producing a coherent peice. Those constraints may simply be a collection of stylistic decisions, or rational systems such as grids and proportions. Reducing the infinite decisions afforded by a blank canvas to a select set through constraints forces the designer to bump into the limitations of that newly-constrained medium. That friction leads to clever, creative solutions as the constraints define the problems for the designer to solve.

Objectives Before Ornamentation
Edward Tufte, in The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, introduces the concept of a “duck” in graphic design. A duck is a graphic “taken over by decorative forms or computer debris”—the decoration of the graphic becomes more important than the data or content itself. The name is borrowed from a small shop on Long Island called “Big Duck”. The store itself takes the shape of a duck—the epitomization of pure ornamentation.

“It is all right to decorate construction but never construct decoration”†

While duck-shaped structures may be appropriate for novelty gift shops, most buildings are designed for function and utility. Ornamentation is important, but it must not undermine the function and utility of the space. This lesson of architecture can be applied to all purpose-driven or communication-driven design.

† Venturi et Al. Learning from Las Vegas. p 163.
Architecture photo by Andrew Dupont under Creative Commons
Big Duck photo by SuburbanCowboy under Creative Commons

1. Ted Jacobson September 28th at 12:22 am

   Fantastic read. Constraints are important for just about every creative field. As a copywriter it’s really important to narrow the scope of my writing just to get the ball rolling on a body of text. It’s somewhat of a loose constraint, but I find personas incredibly helpful in narrowing my focus on what my audience wants.

2. Jeremy Welch September 28th at 8:27 am

   Great point, Rob. This definitely extends to all areas of life. I’ve found that when a designer can create something aesthetically pleasing using functional forms, I am even more impressed than if that something were ornate to the point of almost being Victorian.

   I’m looking forward to reading more of you blog posts!

3. Dagobert Renouf September 29th at 7:31 am

   Nice article.
   It’ s a good point you make because it sometimes happen, you begin to be obsessed with the visual and you forget structure importance.

   *the comment form (textarea field) is messy with firefox, it overflows like 200px out of the page sturcture*

4. Justin Dickinson October 1st at 2:17 pm

   Rob, great post. I’m putting together a presentation on design and the small details that make systems successful and I think I’ll use that same quote from Venturi. There’s a quote from director David Lynch that has to do with ducks and design:

   http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000186/bio

   Scroll down to “Personal Quotes”. It’s a little long, but it has always stuck with me.

   My one coworker likes to use architecture metaphors when discussing plans for web sites. His best yet was a response to why adding a whole new section to a design that was already in production would cost a lot of money:

   “If I build you a two bedroom house and right before we paint it, you ask for it to be a five bedroom, do you think that’s something that is easy to ‘just add’?”

5. liquid06 November 14th at 2:20 pm

   Justin: thanks so much for posting that comment from your co-worker. That’s awesome.

   Rob: Thanks much for this post - I always look forward to your content.