Why vs. How

Goodbye, Reading Rainbow. From NPR’s article, emphasis mine:

Grant says that PBS, CPB and the Department of Education put significant funding toward programming that would teach kids how to read — but that’s not what Reading Rainbow was trying to do. “Reading Rainbow taught kids why to read,” Grant says. “You know, the love of reading — [the show] encouraged kids to pick up a book and to read.”

What a shame. Reading Rainbow was a relic of an old world. A world where asking “Why?” was just as important as “How?” Seems that the more complex we make our lives, the more everyone feels we need to explain the How. It’s been a priority shift in education and in what we perceive as the best way to cope with the complexity of the world.

I think this taps in to some of the frustrations I have with how we’re educating and training our design students for the creative fields. I believe we’ve reached a time where we should talk less about How, and refocus on Why in our classrooms. We’ve got a batch of savvy youngsters that grew up with all of this complexity. They don’t need all of the explanations we think they need. Three main points for Why and against the ubiquity of How in classrooms:

One

How is coulda, why is shoulda. How is specifics. Why is motivation. In a world with limited resources (natural resources, time, attention, money), our questions should not be about whether something is possible or how to do it, but whether it’s worth doing it at all. Why is just as much a real-world skill as How. In fact, increasingly so. In my career, the most enjoyable, difficult and common-place jobs I’ve had, I’ve been given an objective rather than a task. (“Realign our company to be xyz,” rather than “redesign our letterhead.”) How is tasks. Why is objectives.

Two

Educational institutions that focus on How age quickly. Their curriculums gather dust, because most can’t keep up with the pace of the fields they’re educating their students to enter. (Hello, web designers.) Educational institutions aren’t known for dexterity. “Why are we being taught this?” is something I hear frequently from my graphic design students about their enrollment in a software class. They already know a great deal about how to operate in the programs. The school can’t act quickly enough to shepherd those who have more advanced skills out of the class because of all the red tape involved. There’s no need to be redundant, especially since the amount of time a student has in contact with an instructor shrinks as class sizes continually grow.

Three

The internet is incredible at answering How questions, and self-education is more accessible than ever. (I’d also argue self-education is a necessary skill.) Also, the tools of our trade are largely democratized (whether the companies that sell them would like it that way or not). A large portion of the students I mentioned above have a knowledge of the software because they were able to get their hands on a bootleg version of Photoshop. Imagine that. A 16 or 17-year-old kid able to mess around with a professional level tool for a couple years before they’re able to go and get proper training. Incredible.ƒ

Frank Chimero Designing & writing

Hi, I’m Frank Chimero, a designer from New York. Currently, I’m on sabbatical walking NYC, investigating new creative tooling, and researching Brian Eno’s collaborations with machines.

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Portrait of Frank Chimero

The Shape of Design A short book for new designers about the design mindset

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Writing Selected essays
and lectures

An anvil tied to a balloon
Everything Easy is Hard Again Is it twenty years of experience in tech or five years, repeated four times? 2018
A grid of wood cubes
The Web’s Grain Design by thinking inside the box model 2015
Time lapse image of a galloping horse
What Screens Want Design as choreography instead of composition 2013
A rose growing out of a pile of dirt
Only Openings Some problems must be tended instead of solved. 2014
Two torn pieces of paper matched together
Designing in the Borderlands Designer as translator, integrator, and merchant of ideas 2014

Blog 2009–?

About CV and bio

Hi, I’m Frank Chimero, a designer and writer from New York.

Previously, I was Creative Director and Head of Brand at the payments platform Modern Treasury. Before that, I co-founded and led design at Abstract, a design workflow and knowledge base startup that was later aquired by Adobe.

I also spent fifteen years running a solo design studio and consultancy, designing across product and brand for technology and media companies. Clients include Facebook, Microsoft, Nike, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and many early stage startups. I helped design a few things during that time you’ve probably used, from NPR’s online audio player to Wikipedia’s article pages.

In 2012, I wrote, designed, illustrated, and published The Shape of Design, a little book for new designers about the design mindset and making things for other people. Since the book’s launch, it has become a staple text in design education and found an enthusiastic audience beyond the design community.

I have a big love for museums, beat-up pocket-edition paperbacks, ambient music, antique JRPGs, and Phil Collins. (Nobody’s perfect.)

Experience

  • Sabbatical
  • Creative Director and Head of Brand Modern Treasury
  • Creative Director Fictive Kin
  • Self-employed Studio Frank
  • Co-Founder and Head of Design Abstract (acq. Adobe)
  • Self-employed Studio Frank

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Awards

  • ADC Young Guns 8 Art Directors Club
  • New Visual Artist Print Magazine

Speaking

  • AIGA National Conference
    US
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  • An Interesting Day
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  • Awwwards Conference
    DE
  • Build Conference
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  • Creative Works
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  • Cusp Conference
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  • dConstruct
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  • Design Speaks
    US
  • Design Thinkers
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  • Do Lectures
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  • Etsy
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  • Harvard University
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  • How Design Live
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  • Interlink Conference
    CA
  • Kerning Conference
    IT
  • Mailchimp
    US
  • Mirror Conference
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  • Portable Series
    AU
  • School of Visual Arts
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  • Shopify
    CA
  • South by Southwest
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  • Substans
    NO
  • Webstock
    NZ
  • XOXO Festival
    US