And to answer your question of the educational system conditioning, I’d say yes … Because in design school, the great majority of the classroom critiques were geared toward aesthetic review of the design work being presented. Therefore, as a design student, much of my education resounded in my ability to defend and articulate aesthetic choices.

Many years later, out in the real world, none of my clients care to hear much of my opinion on aesthetic. And to be honest, I am not interested in hearing theirs. My concern is how the designed solution achieves a the business objective put forward by the client. Not what color someone likes on any given day!

You wrote, “I did believe for a long time that the strength of design is only as strong as my ability to defend the designed solution. In the past few years, I have come to realize the designed solution does not “defending.””

First the editor in me (um, and critcism giver) assumes you meant to write need before your final word. Also just wondering if you think the educational system conditioned you to think what you previously thought. I think Rick would agree that that was his angst w/architecture school It didn’t really matter how well you designed but how well you explained it.

love you miss you– did you get my last email about the latter?