“Good design is as little design as possible.” Dieter Rams
We’ve created a culture in which implementing the latest and greatest CSS trick, photoshop filter, or page layout is now synonymous with ‘design’, and those who are capable of doing such are labeled as ‘designers’. Forget content, forget message, heck, forget brand even. If it’s got a text-shadow and a border-radius, it’s cool, and you’re an awesome designer.
David Ogilvy in, Ogilvy on Advertising, begins his first chapter with the contrast of two great Greek statesmen—"When Aeschines spoke, they said, 'How well he speaks.' But when Demosthenes spoke, they said, 'Let us march against Philip!'
Ogilvy prefaced this statement with the fact that when he created an advertisement, he didn’t want people to find it ‘creative’ but rather to buy the product. I had a professor in school who was known to say, “When Aeschines spoke, they said, 'How well he speaks.' But when Demosthenes spoke, they said, 'Let us march against Philip!’”“If someone notices your design, then you have failed.” An evermore prominent problem in today’s design community is the lack of true communication through design, and the growth of design for design’s sake.
Have we really lost that much focus on that which is truly design? It doesn’t matter how you apply design principles, we all must start at the beginning and have a full understanding of exactly what it is that makes us “Designers”.
I could stop there, but it’s obvious that we all don’t understand what that definition entails. Therefore, I prefer even more how Wikipedia states, “Design is the planning that lays the basis for the making of every object or system.” Seems pretty simple to me, but lets break it down. There are two essential parts to note.
1. Design is a plan.
Not a single mention there of how pretty something looks, or even how well it functions, but simply that before an object or system comes into being it must first and foremost be planned out.
2. Design is in everything.
You can not point to any one item around you right now that was not designed in some way shape or form. Design is in every object or system, and we are surrounded by it daily.
So what makes good design then? Successful communication. Huh? Not aesthetics? Not clean code? Not awards? Nope.
Each one of us, no matter our application of design, is charged with communicating the message of the objects and systems we are being employed to design.
How do we then define success? Results. For the vast majority of us, these results are realized in cold hard cash.When our customers are financially successful due to our efforts, then our work is successful. When our customers are financially successful due to our efforts, then our work is successful. Win all the awards you want. Get listed on as many ‘inspiration’ sites as you can. In the end, none of that matters unless the solutions we have employed for our customers resulted in a positive return for their investment in our services.
Perhaps given these observations we could rewrite Wikipedia’s definition to read, “Good design is the successful communication of the basis for every object or system.”
So, you may be asking yourself, where do aesthetics fit in this picture? To put it simply, they’re only one part of the equation (and very necessary when one product or service is indistinguishable from another). However, much of aesthetics is due to personal preference and current trends. Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that the minutia of aesthetics is fully equated with design.
Let’s get focused on results, and I dare say our profession will be all the better for it in the long run. 
I’m Bryan Rees, a graphic designer living and working in Park City, UT. I write here to try and clear my head of clutter, while at the same time adding a bit of beauty to the blogosphere, and exposing web design and typography for what it truly can be. If you enjoy what you read here you can 