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According to a story in Business Week, car designer Doug Wilson
came up with the organizing principle behind the new Nissan J30
Infiniti by doodling an egg and kinda scribbling an arc through it.
The problem was that when he presented to his Japanese clients, they loved the egg, but they hated the face. The Japanese, the article says, see the
headlights as eyes, the grill as mouth. To them, the front of the car is its face. And in
this case, client and designer had a rough way to go over the facial expression of the new
Infiniti.
So if Doug had just paid more attention to what his clients expected, he would have saved
himself a lot of grief. And probably lost the assignment.
Had he started to design from the face, he might not have doodled the egg that gave him
the organizing principle behind the winning design.
Instead, like a typical American, he started from the profile. And that's why he does so
well. He's constantly competing with Nissan's Tokyo designers, and Doug's designs win as
often as they do because he brings a fresh perspective.
If you're buying someone's ideas, look first for the big idea.
Build on it. The details can always be worked out later.
If you supply ideas, make sure they come from you and not your client's expectations.
Clients want big ideas. They make nitpick them to death and they
may not always buy them, but if you don't give it to them, you always lose.
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