Mise en Place for Designers

I am learning to be a better cook. Any how-to cooking book will tell you that one of the keys to successful cooking is prep work. When you’re cooking sometimes you have several things happening at once, and having everything prepared allows you to handle multiple steps without panicking. You’ve already read through the recipe, so no step catches you by surprise. You gathered and prepared your ingredients, so when you have to quickly add minced garlic and saute, it’s already at hand. This prep work is called mise en place.

Besides, if you’ve prepped, you won’t end up in the middle of making risotto only to discover you don’t have enough rice. This may or may not have happened to me recently.

You see, even though I know that doing the prep work properly is important, I’m impatient and it’s tempting to dive right in.

The same is true of design. Prep work is key. And yet all too often we sit down to pick out colors, fonts, and photos without even a clear idea of the purpose of the project.

Design mise en place means doing the brainstorming and research ahead of time so you understand your audience, the message you are trying to convey, the vital information that must be included, and even what your competitors are already doing.

Unfortunately, just as in cooking, prep work can seem a little boring and time-consuming. But it’s necessary for successful designs. If you’ve done the prep, often the design itself snaps into place seemingly like magic, perfect in its simplicity.

As I start my next design projects, I’ll be reminding myself of risotto.