Dialog Box
Creative spark
AdamsMorioka
Table of Contents
The individual likes and dislikes of the designers at AdamsMorioka create a friction that ignites into a fire of ideas.
What makes creative spark?
What motivates designers to be creative is clear—a real client project. What causes their creativity is something else. It is said that creativity is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration; all designers understand this. How and what inspires designers is as varied and different as the designers themselves. Factors that influence a designer to make a particular set of graphic choices could include context, culture, target audience preferences, budget, client suggestions, and the designer's own interests. One thing that is consistent from design firm to design firm is that sparks always fly when a group of talented people come together, pushing and pulling against each other to develop great work.
AdamsMorioka is a group of designers with different backgrounds and expertise who regularly get into heated discussions about their work. Individual likes and dislikes create a friction that ignites into a fire of ideas. Clients add fuel to the fire with their own preferences and demands. All of these people together set off a unique spark that spurs further creativity and ultimately leads to the final design solution.
What follows on the next page are the results of AdamsMorioka applying its creative spark process to an admissions project for the University of Southern California.
Figure 1: All design firms provide visual solutions for their clients' particular needs. The alchemy that occurs in these relationships is often a mystery to the people participating. Take a business problem, add a client team to analyze the situation and define some specific goals and/or methods that would solve the problem, throw in a design team to actualize the client's strategy and make effective communications tools to put into use — and somewhere in this process a spark ignites.
About the author
AdamsMorioka was founded in 1994 by Sean Adams and Noreen Morioka. The firm's founding philosophy of clarity, purity, and resonance spearheaded a revolution in the design community from chaos and complexity to honesty and simplicity.
The work of AdamsMorioka ranges from corporate identities, identity systems, print campaigns and environmental graphics for both interior and exterior, to motion and digital projects such as film and video, animation and websites. We begin each project by strategically creating a set of criteria, compiled by collaborating with our clients. We are very strict about quality, presentation and content, but, of course, there is always the AdamsMorioka touch of fun. AdamsMorioka is the author of Logo Design Workbook and Color Workbook, released in 2005. AdamsMorioka's clients include ABC, Adobe, Gap, Old Navy, Frank Gehry Associates, Nickelodeon, USC, Sundance and The Walt Disney Company.
