Forensic Design is a method of gathering meaningful inspiration from existing design, without being superficial or imitative.
Designers should look for inspiration everywhere, and it’s often useful to study existing design work. Unfortunately, design is very much about “first impressions.” We see only the finished result, unaware of unseen factors such as process, people, language, culture, materials, commerce, and technology.
The study of graphic design usually presents reproductions of finished works, presented as magical visions of arbitrary “great men” pigeonholed into movements, locations, and periods. The gallery context is a terrible way to experience art, let alone design. Design has far-more-relevant goals than impressing other designers. Worse, when we study “vernacular” or “outsider” design, we’re even more likely to skim the surface and snipe superficial ideas.
The key to Forensic Design is looking beyond the surface to understand the whole process. To this end, we ask questions.
Good designers already do this subconsciously, but by developing a conscious framework, the exercise becomes more fruitful, providing a deeper understanding and leading to more interesting ideas. Rather than aping design gimmicks, we can integrate the original designers’ process and intent into our own, creating something more original and honest.
After years of making a conscious effort to think about design in this way, I’ve assembled a list of specific questions. It’s a work in progress (you’ll note some numbers are missing!) and it may never be complete, but it’s my hope that creative professionals will use this list as a starting point for their own investigations.
Here’s the current list of questions (.pdf, v5.0)
A 12-page ’zine with a hand-letterpress-printed cover is available here.
Some background:
In 35-plus years of design and production work. I’ve been lucky to experience several major shifts in design technology. My interest in design history and technology drives me to reverse-engineer any printed piece I come across, to the degree that co-workers started calling me a “forensic designer.” Aside from being a reasonably impressive parlor trick, this skill proved to be very useful in my day-to-day work, especially at Field Notes.
As a poseur-suburban-punk-rocker at heart, I’m a bit averse to “high design culture.” Big design conferences and lectures remind me of arena rock shows: an expensive and unfulfilling one-way flow of already-familiar information. My interest in letterpress printing led me to Hamilton Woodtype and Printing Museum’s annual Wayzgoose conference, which I’d argue is a fantastic model for a more productive and egalitarian exchange of ideas. I’d love to present “Forensic Design” in similar forums, a handful of designers at a time, where, like at the Hamilton Wayzgoose, I can learn as much from the “audience” as they learn from me.
With that in mind, I’m sharing these ideas here, with the associated risks of making them public. I put a good amount of thought and work into this project, and I’m continually refining with an eye to eventual wider publication. I encourage you to use this tool for self-improvement, but I ask that you not share these ideas for profit. I reserve all rights regarding the term “Forensic Design” and its associated texts and concepts.
I’m happy to talk about Forensic Design anywhere, anytime: please reach out if you’d like me to speak to a group (students, designers, etc), or if you have any interest in helping me pursue/develop/publish these ideas.
Inspirations, resources, and others thinking/working in a similar vein:
Briar Levit’s work, notably her film “Graphic Means.”
Aggie Toppins’ work, including these essays.
Annie Atkins’ work.
The short film “Goodbye Etaoin Shrdlu.”
Forensic Design by Bryan Bedell is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
