Monday 10 Dec 2007
While musical tastes will always differ, designers across the board agree there’s nothing like a good tune to get the artistic juices flowing, whether it be ambient, techno or drum & bass. Here top creatives reveal their ultimate playlists – and why they wouldn’t ditch their headphones for anything.
A recent BusinessWeek article probing the practices of Apple’s legendary Industrial Design Unit (tinyurl.com/2jl7gw) reveals that Jonathan Ive and his team dream up their iconic products to the accompaniment of a liver- quivering sound system.
Music, it would seem, is the inspiration for the iPod in more ways than one. This revelation will come as no surprise to the design community, most of whom have to be surgically separated from their headphones at the end of each day.
So what is it that draws designers to music? “It’s a creative thing,” believes David Eglin, a user interface designer with UK tech firm, Salmon. “I find [music] helps keep my head clear when trying to figure a way around a problem.”
“It’s because a designer rarely needs to hear or see anything outside the scope of their monitor, and because many selections of music are inspirational,” believes Marc Amos.
Others feel it also helps with the less challenging sides of the job, “A lot of the time what we do is repetitive,” says Matt Jones, senior designer with Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care. “Listening to music distracts the part of your mind that likes to wander.”
But Justin Amphlett believes it’s more to do with image: “We’re creatives, and the image we promote encourages clients to see us as separate from the traditional business world hence the trainers, jeans, the being surrounded by art, design books, posters, magazines… and music.”
As you’d expect, what music designers listen to is hugely varied, with choice being determined by mood. Matt Jones’ response is typical: “If you come in on Monday pissed off because it’s the beginning of the work week then something like Static X, Disturbed, Rage Against the Machine or Kevin Gilbert’s Shaming of the True work well.”
But when it comes to sounds being a concentration aid, there is more common ground. Ambient or minimal techno does it for Justin Amphlett, while repetitive drum & bass is a must for Aadam Kurm, art director for European news portal, Altermedia.
“I find electronica or dance chillout usually relaxes me, helps with any stress, and aids my concentration,” reveals Daniel Goble, visual communications designer, Human Factors Group.
But for Amos, motivation is the issue. He says he would struggle for motivation in an office where music is either frowned upon or outlawed altogether. Faced with such a threat, how would designers react?
Unsurprisingly, this would leave Amos feeling “pissed”, while Justin Amphlett says simply, “there would be an argument”. For some, though, it would mean war. “I’d tell them to sod off,” Aadam Kurm says. But others can see the anti-social side of headphones.
“A big part of my job satisfaction comes from interaction with the people I work with,” says Eglin. “If you can’t interact with some people because they always have headphones on it can damage the relationship they have with the rest of their team.”
A complex code: the effect of classical music
If those quizzed for this piece are representative of the industry, then classical music does not figure in most creatives’ playlists. Yet studies suggest listening to complex music nearly always classical can aid concentration and even temporarily elevate one’s IQ, particularly among those involved in creative thinking.
This is the so-called Mozart Effect, the name attributed to psychologists’ findings in 1993 that playing Mozart to subjects increases their spatial-temporal reasoning. Today, Mozart’s music is used in a variety of non-musical applications from healing clinics to the classroom.
Complex music in general is also said to increase brain activity more positively than any other kind of music, and can even provide a short- term boost to ‘spatio- temporal reasoning’.
This form of reasoning is the ability to mentally visualize and manipulate spatial patterns, a process that is crucial for conceptualizing solutions to multi-step problems a core skill for designers.
Perhaps you could conduct a controlled Mozart Effect experiment? Two designers could work on similar projects one listening to their usual fare, the other to a piece of Mozart. The two pieces commonly cited as having the most dramatic effect are Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major (K. 448) and Piano Concerto No. 23 (K. 488).
If you’ve got the time or inclination to test this theory, Digital Arts would love to hear your findings. Drop a line to dialogbox@digitalartsonline.co.uk
Sean Ashcroft
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