Design Soup

Design Soup
April 29, 2009, 4:07 pm - By: Chad Halvorson

What kind are you making?

I'm pretty into analogies. Especially when trying to communicate technical situations, but recently I've been thinking about design and creative work. I think I've found my analogy—words to live by in my opinion.

Design is like cooking. As designers, we try to come up with new flavors by trying different ingredients. The best dishes are created by combining ingredients—with an end result in mind about how it should taste. Here are a couple of soup analogies that I think put things in a nice perspective.

1. Sometimes the customer knows what kind of soup they want. The customer may taste the soup and send it back because its to spicy or bland for their taste. It's important to consider their tastes and adapt the dish to respect their pallet—in the end if they don't like it, that soup is going in the trash.


2. Some customers don't know what they're in the mood for or they want the chef to create a dish that reflects the tastes and perspectives of the restaurant. That's why people choose the restaurants they do—because the food has a certain flavor they like.


3. The servers and other people wandering around the kitchen should be less inclined to toss ingredients in or make judgment before the soup has had time to simmer. If the cook wants someone to taste the soup before serving, they will ask. The sous chef and chef de cuisine are working hard on preparing these dishes—let them finish the dish before tasting it.