Here’s a quick one in regard to one of the interesting threads over at QBN forums – Design is Honest. Advertising is Lying. I guess it can relate to one of my previous posts about design in general and Web design in particular.

First of all – both design and advertising can be honest and bullshit. It really goes both ways.

User bluejam in that thread summed it up pretty well:

Consider the humble paperclip. it is designed for a function (holding separate pieces of paper together). It doesn’t pretend to do anything else. That’s honest.
Designing a T-shirt that attempts to pigeon hole two particular creative processes isn’t being fair to either. That’s not honest. permalink

There is a great deal of responsibility in design – at least I think so and I really believe you should strive to work on things that you agree with, in general principle. Than your design will be sincere and honest, and people are going to pick up on that – trust me.

That is exactly what is so difficult about client work – you can’t always relate to the project as much as you would like to (or your client would like to). So what do you do then? – The only thing you can, you do your best, you put yourself in the position of the user/consumer (such a harsh word ‘consumer’, it’s almost a curse word) and try to nail it, figure out what they will respond to.

Designing for the sake of the design itself is nonsense, design can not exist without the product. If you are designing for the product you have a personal connection with (a brand you love, a product you are a satisfied user of, etc.), it is most likely it will be reflected in the design and you’ll end up with an honest design.