There is a particular kind of idea that dies the moment it meets a screen. It is not fragile because it is bad; it is fragile because it is not finished, and software is very good at making unfinished things look final.
Speed is a tax on thinking
A drawing takes long enough that you keep thinking while you make it. The tool imposes a pace, and that pace is roughly the speed of an idea forming. Move faster and you are no longer designing — you are selecting from what the software makes easy.
Give a good idea a slow medium and it gets better. Give it a fast one and it gets decorated.
How this shows up in the work
- Type is chosen after the words are written, never before.
- Layouts start as boxes on paper and stay there until the hierarchy is right.
- Colour arrives last, when there is something for it to serve.
None of this is nostalgia. It is simply the shortest route we have found to work that still holds up a year later.
