Briefly
John Hill
15. October 2014
Photo: Screenshot
What is the role of a brief? What impact does it have on the final outcome of a design, be it a building, a piece of furniture, or an ad campaign? Bassett & Partners asked these questions and more of Frank Gehry and five other prominent designers.
Frank Gehry's design for the Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, D.C., has been taking a roller coaster route toward realization, earning it numerous headlines in our Daily News. In the one-on-one interview in Briefly, Gehry is clearly frustrated by the process (calling it an "endless Yom Kippur") but also resolute that he is being responsible to what a memorial for Dwight D. Eisenhower should be. In other words, he is holding strong to the brief, even if the resulting design is not without its vocal opponents.
Bassett & Partners, a "disruptive brand and design strategy firm" with offices in San Francisco and New York, delves into Gehry's story but also those of Yves Béhar (CEO fuseproject), Maira Kalman (Illustrator), John C Jay (President @ GX, Partner @ Wieden + Kennedy), David Rockwell (CEO Rockwell Group), and John Boiler (CEO 72andSunny). Over the course of its 26 minutes, the film illuminates the varied stances toward the brief as well as the means of shaping them into successful designs in a variety of media and scales.