Some things lecturers say stick many years later, others don’t *cough* art history class *cough*. One that did was in my final year, he drew a chart for me which looked similar to the first image below. It’s a way of working on design projects. The words research, context and design rotate around artifact. Artifact being the thing your making, and the other three being ways of working. Research: Researching the target market, audience and existing design. Context: Is the idea, what I’m researching and designing relevant? Design: Create. These aren’t steps but rather ways of thinking that you should go back and forth from throughout the process, it doesn’t matter which you start with. So many times I’ve seen designers, including myself, stuck on one of the three. Browsing Pinterest endlessly, trying to spark an idea from nothing or sifting through hundreds of fonts. Usually it’s time to switch to another aspect when that happens to save frustration. The three images below the chart were made to put up in the office as a reminder, and for decoration. The rest are making of’s.