Design Statement - The COS Cycle
:: Design is what separates the "designer" from the "artist". Today's postmodern designer is separated from other designers due to two out of three of words I use to define design: Communication, Organization, and Structure or The COS Cycle. A designer has information that must be communicated. He must come to a point of understanding how that information is to be organized and then develop a structure that can explain the information in the most precise, efficient, and cost effective manner. First, an artist has something to be communicated usually preference defines the organization (type of medium to be used) and structure (timeline, cost, etc). For both the modern and postmodern designer, communication is evident. Yet for a modern designer, structure and organization are not so evident. They are obvious to the designer and possibly to the target audience, but for those outside of their own realm, structure and organization are not so understandable. For the rest of us, the communication would not be independent of the structure or organization. For today's postmodern designer like myself, they have a target audience, but also would want others outside of the target audience to also understand the focal point of the message. For example, Mary Kay's major target audience would obviously be women. Yet they would also want men to understand their campaign? Like a husband looking for a gift in the correct color, he would need to understand what is being communicated in order to promote the message (i.e. buy our product). Please do not misunderstand my own message on design. I admit there is a place for modern design. But for the majority of our culture, we depend on these three aspects of design in order to understand design in and or itself. 
:: The major issue I struggled with coming to this cycle is even though I can see many things when it comes to design, I can become fixated on one aspect of design. I can become entrenched in what I believe is truth in the organization or the structure. I sometimes feel I could carry it to my death if I had to! Thanks be to the time that passes and has shown my faults in this way of thinking. Yet that is a topic for a different analysis. Here I have found myself sometimes regurgitating the same principles and processes. I discovered in projects of past. Thankfully, in the past few years, I have been able to extinguish this struggle with most of my design, as demonstrated in this website. Still, I know if left unchecked, I will find myself in this hole again. Thus the reason for the crux of the COS cycle: Organization.
:: Talking of the world of process, there are the beginnings of trials, the middle points of despair and the final "AH- HA's" of triumph. This for me normally happens in the sections of thumbnails and roughs. My main hiccup with this is I normally will want to jump to the next "level" in my creative process. That level is what I have labeled as the first comps inside of the dreaded devil box also known as the computer! Once I enter into this realm, my process normally falls apart and I hasten to put it back together before the project is due. I now send the concept through The COS Cycle of:
1) What is being Communicated?
2) How is it to be Organized?
3) What is the Structure to be used?
:: This process development I have created helps to refine what needs to be communicated with the organization and structure that evolves from the process (i.e. poster, brochure, website, etc.). It helps to find even the simplest problems or rocks that can cause a stumble. Almost like having a lighthouse in order to sail through the rocky shores without capsizing onto the lethal rocks nearby. And it has helped me to realize, I must fight all the harder! To push ahead now into the storms, not just riding them out hoping to survive but possibly (dare I say it) actually enjoy the ride as well!