Lists

I am a creative type. In general that means that I am free flowing and when ideas pop into my brain I run with them. But there is this part of me that is extremely meticulous. One might even venture to say compulsive. Here’s the thing: I love lists and there are parts of my life in which I cannot function without a list. 

Grocery shopping is one of those areas. I plan out my meals for the week. I compose a list of grocery items I will need from the store. To my husband’s annoyance, I will ONLY buy what is on my list. I go through the store methodically. And then when I go to check out I organize my items on the conveyor belt as to how I think they should be put in the bag. Whether the items go into the bag in the right way is up to the cashier. Seven times out of ten, the cashier bags it wrong (at least according to my standards).

It is particularly frustrating when I go to all of this effort and they combine items in strange ways such as vegetables with frozen foods or worse bread or eggs with something heavy! It really makes me mad if they overload my bags and the bags break before I can get them from my car to my kitchen.

You may be asking yourself, “What does this tirade have to do with design?” Well there is a connection. Designers have to be creative, but they also have to plan. If there is no plan things that do not belong together get lumped together to form a disaster.

Logos and images must match what the text is saying. If you just throw a bunch of random information on a page it would equal disaster.

Sure there are moments of pure creativity but those moments are best used in conjunction with a plan - a way to organize your ideas and thoughts. Don’t be fooled into thinking that being creative and creative license gives you a free pass to not think.