Apr 27, 2011
Pixel Perfection, Meet Richard Branson Friday.
Even in a world of pixel-perfect design, sometimes done is, in fact, better than perfect.
As a designer, it's often times hard to let go of your need to make everything 'perfect'. Or at least as perfect as time is allotted (or often billable) and generally even if that's the case, you'll dedicate your evenings, weekends and the wee hours of the morning to ensure said-project's greatness. As a designer, it's also far too easy to forget that failing is ok, taking risks can often reap rewards that you never thought imaginable and done for now doesn't have to mean done forever.
While we Cubans fully embrace the handcrafted, pixel-perfect details, we also understand the need to sometimes let loose. As in Richard Branson loose. As in Richard Branson Friday Platinum loose. These Friday's happen quarterly throughout the Cuban Council calendar, at which time you get one full-day to explore, with the team member of your choosing, anything you wish. While most projects gravitate around apps, products and websites, they can range anywhere from a day of experimental cooking to taking photos at your favorite museum.
This model of 'do now, revise later' seems to be growing in popularity with companies, designers and developers. Pop-up restaurants such as What Happens When, centered around the idea that the restaurant changes theme (including menu, decor and music) each month, takes this to the extreme as they only allow themselves 24 hrs to entirely revamp the rented space in soho. Facebook has it's celebrated 'hackathons' in which developers have all-night coding sessions to explore ideas that aren't part of their daily work schedule; where things like Pixelcloud have come into fruition, designed and then redesigned again. Other people are taking it to the street, or home, such as design couple Archie Lee Coates and Emily Groeber who turned their Williamsburg tea-factory loft into Neighbor, an evening with 10 'neighbors' where the couple experiments with food and drink, in plans to eventually open up their own restaurant.
For Cuban Council, the last Richard Branson Friday Platinum was an incredible success, not just in the sense that some great ideas got generated and even built, but it reminded us all again of the importance of getting something down on paper, letting go of the often-hindering details, and just doing.
Credit: 'Done is Better than Perfect' poster was created at Facebook's Analog Research Lab and designed by the great Ben Barry. What Happens When photo features their Valentine's Day decor.
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