Creativity and Certainty

I’ve been working on mapping design into the business case process; a process defined for NHSScotland by nearly 200 pages of text. A process that seeks to quantify and analyse and in doing so to narrow down the range of possibilities to one certainty that best fits the initial aim. It is a linear and rigorous process. Design, or more specifically creativity, is often seen by clients as dangerous in this – an unpredictable spark that cannot be relied upon either to arrive or to be helpful if it does. An uncontrollable element, advocated by ‘maverics’ that probably hold their own artistic interests above those of the project.

This perception is often reinforced by designers. I once attended an interview where we were asked how we would guarantee a good design. My colleague responded that developing a good design was like throwing a double six, and the trick was to throw one sooner rather than later. You can imagine we didn’t get the job. Architectural education – the act of sketching furiously, waiting for the muse of inspiration to bless your hand, and the subsequent examination of the design by ritual criticism and demolition – does not equip Architects to describe their thinking and their value in a way that clients can understand and find comfort in. Some of the good designers I’ve worked with recently almost distrust the ability to describe design in such terms, feeling that it’s probably more possible for those who cannot themselves design.

However designing is very much like the business case process – first you imagine what you are looking to achieve and test that this is possible. You then move on to sketching a limited number of possible worlds that, to varying degrees, will house and support your needs. By analysing these and making choices you narrow the options down to the world that you will build. You get the best result by using skill and a wee spark of creativity to make every element work hard to deliver more than one part of your vision.

The apparently opposite poles - of clients needs for certainty and the designers talent for creativity - are not so far apart. As with economics, or the business case process, design is... the intelligent application of a scarce resource.