Through your blogs, you champion the creative process. Can you talk about why you think the creative process is important and how you apply it to your client projects?
My appreciation for the value of the creative process has developed over time. I recall client meetings when I started designing over twenty years ago that were very unfocused. Conversations dealt with my clients’ preferences and not those of their customers—the end client. This is a very poor approach to graphic design and results in logos created purely for aesthetic reasons. Looking back, it was a shot in the dark approach to designing. It didn’t take long to realize that engaging in a creative process that is targeted to meeting strategic goals is what makes identity work exciting to me and valuable to my client. I am fascinated by the variety of ways different designers approach problem-solving and am always exploring the unique nature of these approaches to influence my own. My approach to developing identities for my clients is essentially about getting them to see the logo as a by-product of the creative process. The logo is realized because of a genuine understanding of the company or service. To get to a point of understanding, I ask my clients to invest a large amount of time figuring out just who they are before thinking in any visual terms. So I use the creative process not as a step-by-step guide (every project is different) but as a framework to ensure strategic thinking. You can read the rest of the interview here.