Designer First, C.E.O. Second

Came across a great article on NY times today which explained why Apple is such a great force in the product design field. I don't think there is another company out there that has such unity amongst its product range, this even extends into its marketing  material.Everything is controlled. Nothing is overlooked. I'm talking aesthetics here, not the functionality of their OS.

The reason for this comes from the fact that the CEO Steve Jobs appreciated subtle design elements. In his widely noted commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005, Steve explained where this design passion came from, describing a typography class he attended:

 "I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans-serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.  But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography."

As you can imagine, your next design project will go through many hands and may sometimes lose their initial lustre by the time they finally come to life. The designer will spend hours fretting over the layout; the font size, the letter spacing, the font choice, the colour scheme, the subtle texture in the background and the drop shadow on the text. Hours are spent getting these elements to exist in unity. What you don't notice straight away on a design is what makes a great design. So this is where a good company will stand out from the rest. Pixel perfect design and development is a rare thing but it is achievable. The result is designers / developers / clients / decision makers collaborating in a way that can make a project into a great project. 

CEO's / decision makers cannot all be like Steve Jobs and hold a deep appreciation for the subtleties that make objects or designs beautiful. However collaborating with a design studio that ensures such elements are well prioritised is a must, designs can make or break your projects.