When distilling an alcoholic beverage, to achieve the liveliest of libations, you must first find the sweet spot.
Put forth little effort and you’ll be toasting with a punchless punch. Go too far and you sacrifice all the unique, natural character you began with, the result of which is an overworked, tasteless, lackluster spirit.
The Moonshine
Living in Austin, I’ve had the privilege to meet a couple of legitimate experts when it comes to creating the finest rum and vodka available. No matter what kind of hooch, rotgut or grog you’re distilling, there are two key factors that remain crucial to the craft. First, you have to start off with great ingredients. There is no sense in trying to develop something without potential. Second, there is a sweet spot in the distillation process. Each time the mash is distilled, it gains a refined alcoholic kick, but loses a little of its natural character. Go too far and you’ll be drinking straight firewater.
The Design
A similar sweet spot / bell curve can be found in the design process. It’s easy to see that weak content, poor planning, and clumsy execution can be project-wrecking bad ingredients. More difficult, perhaps, is to know when you’ve done too much. An over-refined and over-tweaked design can lose the natural edge that made it sing and the unique appeal that helped it to stand out.
Learning when to say when
There may be days where you wish you could design in a vacuum or design only for yourself, but in the long run it would be less challenging and overall boring. Outside factors like feedback, revisions, production restrictions and deadlines shape a project much like humidity and temperature can effect the production process of a fine scotch. The mark of a truly experienced designer and distiller alike, is to be able to work within the challenges and adapt, considering them all part of the process. There really is nothing as satisfying as having a developed design palette that enables you to look at a project and say with confidence, “It’s ready”.
2 Responses
Nothing starts off a Monday morning better than thinking about booze before 11AM!
I think you are dead-on about the creative danger of “over-refinement”. 9 out of 10 edgy ideas come at the beginning of a project, when you have a blank canvas to work from. Detail and revisions should only be made when you realize they don’t strip the originality and voice of a design.
But it certainly is a challenge. It can be as much about “not designing” as it is about “designing”.
Oh guys, I really wish that there is enough time for design in the industry. Nothing is more frustrating than having a bag of ideas but an empty one of time & budget.
However, I experienced that having a lack of deadlines is as unproductive as a lack of time, which supports the basic idea of this article.