Syncopated Design
Founder: David Trick

Syncopated Design was started with the goal of establishing a positive, honest presence in the general Seattle community as well as among the design community.  This will be done both through the artwork itself, and with the ideals and perspectives which are fundamental to the company design perspective.

The two main purposes for establishing the company are to:

• Become a successful Seattle-based Design Firm able to give back to the Seattle Community using both Green business practices, and humanitarian service-oriented projects.
• Be on the forefront of design, helping to chart the way for new and better practices within the art, and bringing back the integrity to the business of Design.

The business ideals which govern the design perspective and customer interactions are:

• Transparency of motive, action, and technique
• Maintenance of the integrity of the practice both in the public’s eyes, and within the company
• Utilization of expertise to create quality projects, efficiently
• Keeping morality, ethics, and compassion at the forefront in interactions with clients
• Be as Green in practice as is practical, and continually strive to find more efficient and eco-friendly methods
• Keep up with current trends in design, not allowing perspectives to stagnate

As for the design itself, the three main ideals governing the visual aesthetic are:

• Simplicity through refinement,
• Elegance in form and appearance,
• and Creatively bold perspectives.

Responsibility has many different aspects and focuses, and many different meanings from the many various perspectives of the multitude of people who pause to consider them. Some would call it integrity, some “giving back to society,” others would call it having “good business practices which support the focus of the company.” All are aspects of responsibility, and all are valid and necessary, however the aspect which is sometimes lost to the wayside is that of the responsibility to the customer/business relationship; and while all of these focuses are a part of that interaction, none of them deal explicitly with it, or indeed even acknowledge it as a primary focus.

A business itself is founded upon a need, a need of the society, a need within the culture, or a need within the members of the business itself to improve the lives of those around it. Any business which does not fulfill a need, cannot profit, and will not sustain itself. A client or customer is the cultural/societal expression of the need in a form the business can interact with. If we view it from this standpoint, the reason the relationship should be the primary focus of a business comes to the fore. Without acknowledging or indeed forming and developing these relationships we as businesses cannot interact with or fulfill that need.

If we leave this interaction without looking deeper, we deny the human part of our business, and since a need is a wholly human conception, we are denying the purpose of our company’s existence. To further degrade the interaction by seeking simply to look at numbers, we make it cheap, shallow, and as a whole we lose the regard of our clients. Though they may continue coming simply due to habit, or to a perception that our business is filling a need, the interaction is no longer as fulfilling or indeed satisfying.

Take a day to day interaction: that of getting coffee from a well known company. A customer enters the shop, is asked what they want, and given the drink of their choice. On the surface this is the whole of their interaction, but there is a much deeper interaction which is taking place. For example:

The customer chose what shop to enter based on: their perception of the company as a whole, where it gets its coffee, how it treats the people who work for it, how many people have been positively affected in their circle of friends/acquaintances, what their experience was last time they entered, how the company has marketed itself, and what it expresses as important… Just to name a few.

They then chose the coffee for many of the same elements:  The practices of the company and country where it was created, the enjoyment they received from the last time, the word of their friends and acquaintances, the amount of work they are willing to inflict on the barista, etc.

They receive their beverage in a like manner:  The barista’s presentation (tired, overworked, happy, underpaid, supported, content, etc.), the drink itself (good, bad, too hot, too cold, new, old, etc.), and then seek to find a place to drink it either with contentment, disgust, tiredness, happiness…

This illustration is meant to show how much depth goes into so minute an interaction as getting your coffee and how many unconscious factors are involved. Then if you think about how many times you do this, and how often it happens (for most of us almost every day) you begin to understand why the relationships should be more important than even the drink itself.

A quote I love by Chris Riley in his essay on The Cultural Influence of Brands: In Defense of Advertising states, “We do not need products to be symbols of empowerment: We have power.” Things are not what people look for to make them powerful or to feel supported; interaction, support, harmony, contentment and respect are the primary goals in most people’s hearts from any relationship, no matter with who or what they are interacting with.  We could just as easily go to a different shop, we choose to go to the one we gain the most from.

Responsibility comes in when we look at the whole of our purpose, and strive to make every aspect of it that we can, be filled with integrity, honor and thoughtfulness. Each interaction should be focused on maintaining a level of professional dignity and honor, and respect each individual for the unique opportunity to they are providing to give meaning to the business. By our actions as a company we are judged in the eyes of our consumers, we must look for what will support the customer and the society in general the most.

What is Design?
The best of the Dictionary.com definitions is: to plan and fashion the form and structure of an object, work of art, decorative scheme, etc.
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/design?&qsrc=)
I prefer to think of it as a perception or lens which gives the ability to see form, structure and purpose as variables which need to be harmonized into a simple elegant whole.  There are many ways of doing this, but the point of design itself is to simplify meaning, function, and form into something easily understood and intriguing to the viewer/user/client.

When thinking of the process of Design these are some words which come to mind:

Simplicity, Elegance, Refinement, Creativity, Fun, Surprise, Rhythm,
Problem-Solving, Intelligence, Determination, Intuitive-Reaction…

The process is meant to bring order and harmony to something which is nebulous or chaotic. It seems to me that in order to truly understand design one must live it, and let it permeate into every aspect of life.  That is, it brings the ideals of harmony, simplicity, efficiency, elegance, refinement, and creativity into everything we interact with and every situation we find ourselves in. It helps us to be always searching for a better, clearer way to communicate or express purpose; both in what we do and make, and who we are.

Design is a lens which encourages us to see the truth, refine it to what is truly needed, then redefine how it is expressed.

Syncopation

a shifting of the normal accent,
usually by stressing the normally unaccented beats.

Design

to plan and fashion the form and structure.

Syncopated Design

to plan and fashion the form
and structure by shifting the normal accent,
stressing normally unaccented beats.

Ellen Lupton – a very cool writer of design/typographic oriented books.  You should definitely check her books out for a lot of very good incite, and a highly entertaining sense of humor.

John Maeda – another very good bookwriter though in a completely different vein then Ellen Lupton.  I read his book “Simplicity” (about design from a business person’s perspective) and it was very helpful in putting into words the ideas of design and why they are what they are.

I am currently reading Ecological Design by Sim Van Der Ryn and Stuart Cowan, and would like to share with you a great phrase that caught my eye: ‘The industrialized world, with its science, technology, and borrowed affluence, has developed by denying wholeness within the art of living.’ – this was said of the old perspective in design, and in relation to the need for a new vision of what is worthy of consideration when planning to design.

Projects over the past year:

LucyLovesEthel: Three designs to go on clothing

Herman Law Firm: What to Do in an Accident Pamphlet

Hajj: Poster for Pilgrimage

Hula Club: Picture -> Logo development

Honduras WebHosting: Logo design

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