Fractal creativity
In 2014, Julie Zhuo presented a framework for understanding design maturity. 8 years later, I think about this framework often. Here’s a diagram from her post, comparing the process of a junior designer (left) with a senior designer (right).
In the better design process, we have branches of exploration, forming a tree structure. The idea is, a mature designer has the discipline to know which branches to kill, and which to pursue further.
Let’s look at this process in a different way. Here is a more common view of the traditional design process, pioneered by IDEO and the Stanford d.school.
It’s an iterative process, in which we diverge, then converge, diverge, then converge, again and again, until we land on a solution. If you aren’t familiar, diverging is typically an ideation phase: going wide with ideas, creating new branches. Converging is narrowing down, honing in, killing branches. This model is also known as iterate-and-refine.
If you’ve ever freelanced, or worked at a creative agency, you’ll know that iteration is not just essential to the creative process. It’s also essential to the pricing model. An SOW, or scope of work agreement, typically sets a fixed number of iterations before the final deliverable. Take it from IDEO: “Ambiguous problems call for fast and cheap iterations.”
Let’s say you present 3 directions to a client: directions A, B, and C. These are our initial 3 branches. You have a client review, direction C is the winner, and so you iterate again. 3 more branches: C1, C2, and C3. Another review, another winner, another round of iterations: C2.1, C2.2, C2.3. Branch out, choose one, zoom in, branch out, repeat.
What do we have here? A fractal. A self-sustaining pattern that repeats infinitely on every scale, small and large. No matter how deep you zoom in, the same pattern emerges.
So in the traditional design process, we zoom in to our fractal solution set, until we find the solution that best fits our needs. Or, following the agency model, we zoom in exactly 3 times, or you’ll need to pay us more.
But the thing about fractals is, they scale both ways. So why are we zooming in, and not zooming out?
Nearly 50 years ago, Charles and Ray Eames explored this concept in a short film, Powers of Ten. On every order of magnitude, from the molecular to the astronomical, the same patterns emerge.
Sometimes, the design process requires us to zoom out. Let’s say you present those 3 creative directions, A, B, and C, but nothing lands. Back to the drawing board. You might keep pushing forward with branches D, E, F. Nothing lands. You’re forced to zoom out and realize that you’re not even on the right parent branch.
This is where true innovation happens. You’re working on the world’s fastest horse, but the best solution is a car. You’re working on Blu-Ray DVDs, but the best solution is streaming.
That’s why I say that creativity is fractal. Design maturity isn’t just about knowing which branches to kill, and which to zoom in on. It’s about knowing when to zoom out.
