Left Brain and Right Brain, Essay Example

If the goal in fashion is to not merely create, but to succeed over the competition, the reality is that a combination of left and right brain functions is necessary.  Artistry and originality may “open the door,” and even make a widespread impression.  That art, however, must be produced and marketed correctly if it is to enjoy any commercial popularity, which is the goal of designers.  That said, the problem is that “creativity” is too narrowly interpreted, when decisions are made to combine those with hard business sense with fashion artists.  This thinking relies on incorrect ideas of creativity as impractical, and business as insensitive.  The truth is that a good, creative designer can see possibilities in marketing in a creative way, just as they must be practical in creating for the human body.  Similarly, business is not necessarily an uncreative process; the greatest business people, in fact, are those who open their minds to new possibilities.  The paradigm of impractical artist needing the dry, factual business help, then, is irrelevant.  Both sides, to differing extents, require left and right brain functioning.

This goes to further discussions on which facet of such an operation is more important than the other.  In a sense, it is true that no business can be in place without the designs, so the creative product would appear to be more crucial.  At the same time, and as today’s top design houses demonstrate, business and design merge in ways in which it is difficult to identify just where the actual creativity originates.  For example, a huge concern like Michael Kors has divisions that scout out past and current trends in public taste.  This information must then affect how Kors himself designs, or direct his creativity in a certain way.  It is, of course, still essential that Kors and his designers employ artistic talent in their work, but that this talent is influenced by practical considerations does not mean that the work is any less original.  On the contrary, artists often produce their best work when they are faced with specific challenges to meet.  Similarly, as the marketing is dependent on the quality of the work, the good business side must devise creative ways to best expose the product.  This is all the more true because of the opportunities of today’s multimedia and communication technologies, and it also makes the business side as integral to the design process as the manufacture side.  In simple terms, the good designer or design house is a completely creative enterprise because business reflects and adapts to the creativity of design itself, and good business people are by no means the stereotype of the unimaginative bookkeeper.