The bastardization of the design process

I think I've found the itch that I've been meaning to scratch for many months now. It's always been that secondary frustration that's bad enough to drive you crazy, but bearable to not warrant any radical action.

The past few weeks have amplified both my frustration and my appreciation for the design process - precious hours that tick by with little much to show for. Until recently, I wasn't able to make any sense of spending two days writing material, showed for at the end of the day by two mere sheets of A4's; or spending countless hours tweaking ONE photograph. Also, the annoyance of cutting short a seemingly impotent process, and wondering why nothing good comes out of it.

What I miss is the luxury of the absence of technology (and perception of time for that matter) centuries ago - when the slow drying of ink afforded the artist time to deliberate, or the act of writing by hand that forced only the best of ideas to make its way to the parchment. Yes, technology speeds things up, but I can't help wonder what we lose in the process.

It doesn't help either, when everybody is a little on time these days - people don't get paid very much to design anymore. When you've got an economy that can't adequately appraise the quality of creativity, and simply falls back on quantitative rudiments.

My gripe is, I am passionate about the time that's taken to ruminate, reflect, and deliberate, yet I find precious few people who actually want more than just the next brochure out next Friday, much less pay for it.

The microwave will never displace the slow cooker.