Q: How many designers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Does it have to be a lightbulb?
This old joke is a compliment to designers. It demonstrates that the best designers always question the brief, do their own independent research and usually come back with more questions.
This is generally the best approach, but sometimes it can go wrong. There is so much information on the internet that it’s tempting to gather all your information from your desk.
Whoever designed the the lighting poles that adorn Jack Purcell Park in the Canadian city of Ottawa, clearly took this route.
Jack Purcell (as Wikipedia tells us) was a Canadian world champion badminton player in the 1930s. He also designed an athletic shoe that bears his name, which is still popular today. Google Jack Purcell and there it all is, pictures of him, his shoes and details of his sparkling career.
The lighting poles that were designed for Jack Purcell Park (which you can see here) are a pretty cool way to answer the brief. Except they’re not. They are very, very wrong.
Whoever responded to the brief got the wrong Jack Purcell. Whoever the client was, didn’t realise it was the wrong Jack Purcell.
There was another Jack Purcell, not so famous outside of Ottawa as Badminton Jack, but a truly valued of part of the Ottawa community.
This Jack Purcell was a local man who was known for generously repairing children’s hockey sticks. He was apparently very good at this and was nick-named ‘the stick doctor’. Locals named the park in his honour.
So when the $46,000 lighting scheme was unveiled, there was some confusion among the local residents.
The lighting art pieces are now officially known as ‘futuristic trees’.
Sometimes it’s necessary to go beyond your desk to research a brief and nothing beats getting among the audience you are designing for and actually talking to people.