My best days as a designer are when I ask myself, “Is this design awesome, or am I insane?” and don’t know the answer.
If you never ask yourself that question, you are not stretching the limits of your taste enough. You are not trying enough crazy ideas. You are in a rut.
If you never have to ask that question, your designs or art are probably boring.
But often we avoid getting into situations where we have to ask that question because, sometimes, it turns out you are insane. Well, you’re not actually crazy but you realize that the idea was bad after all.
And bad ideas feel like a failure. So because we fear failure, we don’t take risks on bad-sounding ideas.
But that’s a shame, because so often, even when the idea turns out to be bad, it still paves the way for another concept that does turn out to be awesome.
Beneath every bad design concept is another more crazy, daring, and wonderful.
And if you don’t dig down into the crazy ideas and give them a chance, you’ll never find the wonderful ones buried beneath them.
Design's Iron Fist is a collection of essays with advice for both design learners and professional designers. It's been featured as one of the best free design books by the Creative Bloq and the AIGA.
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