The Designer’s Paradox states that:
You don’t know what you want until you know what you can have
Ed McCann, Think Up (1)
This isn’t a criticism of clients. It’s a structural feature of design.
What we want is shaped by what we believe is possible. But our understanding of what is possible only develops as we being to explore, imagine and test alternatives.
The design process generates possibilities. Possibilities reshape what we desire.
In a classic design process, this creates a loop:
- We often start with an initial idea of what we want
- We explore and imagine what might be possible
- We discover new opportunities and limitations
- We update what we want.
The paradox is: the brief depends on design but design also depends on the brief. This is why design can’t be reduced to executing a predefined set of requirements.
The Designer’s Paradox underpins the idea of the Living Brief — the understanding that a design brief evolves alongside the design itself.
References
(1) Ed McCann – See Think Up (2018). Conceptual Design for Structural Engineers (Online) – Notes and resources. Available here [Accessed January 2021]