Inspired: Ben Christie Magpie Studio

The modern world is full of inspirational design, but it’s often the weaker stuff that gets me going.

Throughout the day, we are bombarded by people or objects trying to tell us something – whether it be advising us what to do, where to go, which product to buy or convincing us who is best equipped to run the country. It’s amazing how many of these messages are unclear and poorly delivered.

Designers love to criticise, to point out what doesn’t work. Admittedly, an element of this is fussiness or cynicism. But it is part of our make-up. As a designer, understanding what doesn’t communicate effectively is the vital step to knowing what does.

As we move towards the scenario portrayed in the film Minority Report (with the commercial world speaking to us at every waking moment), information saturation is ever increasing and so the clarity of a piece of communication is more important than ever.

The reassurance for me comes in seeing the ’noise’. Once you identify this, it then becomes straightforward to transcend it.