Every design has its own order. The job of the genius is to discover it. The best approach is to start with a logical structure, then deviate from it according to your needs, your skills, and the particular demands of your project.

If you’re designing your own house, for example, the combination of site, neighborhood, budget, space requirements, and your personal taste may suggest a three-level, Modernist cliff-hugger to take advantage of the views and adapt to its special engineering needs. Or it may lead you to a farmhouse-like compound that blends into its setting and accommodate a range of specific uses. Every set of circumstances points to a different underlying order.

If you’re developing a website, parameters may include your skillset, your audience, their experience level, the navigational possibilities, your brand’s personality, and the functional purpose of the website may point to magazine-style format with rich, emotion-laden photography. Or it may suggest an all-typography format with no-nonsense navigation and clear copywriting. Avoid cookie-cutter approaches. Every design should align with its unique purpose.

This doesn’t mean that every project should be produced lavishly, or that it should break the mold on general principle, but simply that each project has a hidden structure that, if discovered, can bring out its full potential. When purpose and structure find the right fit, one plus one equals three.

* * *

I highly recommend reading Marty’s most recent book, The 46 Rules of Genius: An Innovator’s Guide to Creativity (Voices That Matter), published by New Riders (May 2014). He is a designer, writer, and business adviser whose mission is to bring the principles and processes of creativity to industry. His earlier works include METASKILLS, explores the five essential talents that will drive innovation in the 21st century. His previous series of “whiteboard” books includes THE DESIGNFUL COMPANY, about the role of design in corporate innovation; ZAG, named one of the “top hundred business books of all time” for its insights into radical differentiation; and THE BRAND GAP, considered by many the foundational text for modern brand-building.

He has worked closely with innovators at Apple, Netscape, Sun Microsystems, HP, Adobe, Google, and Microsoft to advance their brands and cultures. Today he serves as Director of Transformation for Liquid Agency, and travels extensively as a workshop leader and speaker on the topics of innovation, brand, and design. Between trips, he and his wife spend their time in California and southwest France.