Walked through the MoMA design exhibit and noticed something weird about the labels

Every single piece had a tiny label with just the name and date. No process sketches, no materials list, no backstory. Just the finished object. Made me wonder if we overcomplicate our own workflows by documenting every stupid iteration. Maybe just put the final thing out there. Has anyone else scaled back their process documentation and seen better results?

2 comments

2 Comments

webb.xena8d ago

my friend martha used to keep a folder for every single project, draft 1 through draft 50. then her laptop died and she lost everything, had to start fresh from just the final file. she said it was the best thing that ever happened to her work, no more second guessing or going back to old versions.

simon_black9d ago

Huh, that's actually a really good point... I've been guilty of saving every single sketch and version and honestly half the time i never even look back at them. Feels like we're all just hoarding digital clutter. Maybe the real discipline is knowing when to stop documenting and just let the work speak for itself. I'm kinda tempted to purge all my old process files now.