Good designers are dangerous*

[atlasvoice]

Comment by the Editor-in-Chief | Johannes Frederik Christensen

The Business of Brand Management sheds light on brand management in the context of the present and history. This article is part of a series of republications of selected texts by Olaf Leu and Bodo Rieger from the years 1987 to 2018. What was thought, written and advocated back then is worth re-reading - not out of nostalgia, but because it reflects questions that have not been resolved even today.



1. for those customers who give wishy-washy information instead of justifying facts and positions. For example: The added value and unique position of their branded products in their portfolio.

2. for those so-called customer advisors who know their way around high-end bistro menus better than their customers' markets.

3. for those so-called marketing experts who preach innovation and USP and actually mean adapting to needs, i.e. imitation and cheating, because they are terrified of risk. But new ideas have to be risky. Otherwise they are not new or worth nothing.

4. for those so-called market and opinion researchers who confuse research with statistics and have the not entirely unprofitable tick of using representative samples from yesterday's world to prophetically explain tomorrow's world with all the superiority of their so-called research and their claim to truth. Stirring in the coffee grounds would have done the trick in most cases and would also have been cheaper. Good design needs research, a priori and not just a posteriori.

5. for those managers who talk the blue sky about CI + CD + CC + ETC and actually only have the gold edge for their business card in mind.

6. for those designers who confuse cause and effect. Good designers ask for causes - for products, brands, markets, attitudes, behaviors, quirks and quirks of people as buyers and users and want to be given concrete information and authentic experiences and sensory experiences. Because they are precise, thorough, conscientious, and only then business-minded. Because the good designer asks about the actual problem and does so not only intelligently, but also intuitively. Because they design their solutions not only intuitively, but also intelligently.

Because he could and does do the marketing himself, not only when necessary, but also when the customer needs it and doesn't have the right people. Who recommends the famous colleague when he realizes that the market and the customer need him. Who does not equate having with being, egoism with identity.

Who doesn't parrot these stupidities about design as function, but proves that design is cause. Because it starts with questions and not answers. Because good design constantly reinvents the wheel, e.g. by making the wheel superfluous - and not by painting old wheels brightly. That abolishes the dripping tap before it conjures up a knot in it.

Because good design means the unity of thinking, planning, creating and realizing and, in the sense of the holistic, also selling - as the English word "design" semantically explains.

Good design knows no predecessors and successors, only origin and effect, idea and reality.

Good design is not the result of a function, but the cause of itself, and therefore also the cause of its functions.

(This can already be read in Aristotle in his 4 causes behind all phenomena that are linked to each other, "folded in", as the famous atomic physicist David Bohm calls it, who refers to these 4 causalities of Aristotle to explain the new holistic world view of physics with its implicit order.

The designer also asks about the causa finalis, the purpose and use, and especially about the causa formalis et exemplaris, the form-giving cause or inner form-determination or the inner movement that is intrinsic to things, which expresses itself as the intended effect, causa efficiens, in the substance, in the formed matter, the causa materialis).

Good design is creative and holistic, thrives on freedom and understanding and reflects the designer's responsibility in handling the four causalities. Good design is also a proof or counter-evidence of the designer's attitude. I can also call it character or morality.

Good design becomes a "living figure" (Schiller). It is fascinating and dangerous. For bad taste. For plagiarists. And for the all-too-fast moneymakers.

Good designers love danger.

*The publication rights of this article are owned by Prof. em. Olaf Leu.
































































































































































*The
publishing rights of this post are in the



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1. for those
customers who give wishy-washy information instead ofjustifying factsand positions at
. For example: The added value and
positioning of their branded products in their portfolio. 2. for those so-called
customer advisors who are more familiar with high-end bistro menus than with
their customers' markets. 3. for those so-called
marketing experts who preach innovation and USP and actually mean
adapting to needs, i.e. imitating and cheating, because they
have a huge fear of risk. But new ideas have to be
risky. Otherwise they are not new or worth nothing. 4. for those so-called
market and opinion researchers who confuse research with statistics
and have the not entirely unprofitable tic of using representative
samples from yesterday's world to prophetically explain the world of tomorrow with
all the superiority of their so-called research and their
claim to truth. Stirring coffee grounds would have done
the same for the most part and would also have been cheaper. Good
design needs research, a priori and not just a
posteriori. 5. for those
managers who talk the blue sky about CI+CD + CC + ETC and
actually only have the gold edge for their business card in their brains. 6. for those
designers who confuse cause and effect. Good designers ask
about causes - for products, brands, markets, attitudes,
behaviors, quirks and quirks of people as buyers and
users and want to be given concrete information and authentic
experiences and sensory experiences. Because they are
precise, thorough, conscientious and then business-minded.
Because the good designer asks about the actual problem and
does so not only intelligently, but also intuitively. Weiler designs his
solutions to problems not only intuitively, but also intelligently. Because he could do the
marketing himself, not only if necessary, but in principle, and
does it when the customer needs it and doesn't have the right people
. Who recommends the famous colleague when he recognizes that the
market and the customer need him. Who does not equate having with being
, egoism with identity. Who does not parrot these
stupidities about design as a function, but proves,
that design is a cause. Because it starts with questions and not with answers
. Because good design always reinvents the wheel, e.g.
by making the wheel superfluous - and not by painting old wheelsin bright colors.
That abolishes the dripping faucet before it conjures a knot into it
. Because good design
means the unity of thinking, planning, creating and realizing and
in the sense of the holistic also means selling - as the
English word "design" semantically explains. Good design knows
no predecessors and successors, but only origin and
effect, idea and reality. Good design is
not the consequence of a function, but the cause of itself, i.e. also
the cause of its functions. (This can already be read
in Aristotle in his 4 causes behind all
phenomena, which are linked to each other, "folded in", as the famous
atomic physicist David Bohm calls it, who refers to these 4 causalities of
Aristotle in order to explain the new holistic world view of physics with
its implicit order. The designer
also asks about the causa finalis, the purpose and benefit, and
especially about the causa formalis et exemplaris, the form-giving
cause or inner determination of form or the inner movement,
which is intrinsic to things, which expresses itself as the intended effect,
causa efficiens, in the substance, in the designed matter, the causa
materialis.) Good design is
creative and holistic, thrives on freedom and understanding and
reflects the designer's responsibility in handling the 4
causalities. Good design is also always proof or
counter-evidence of the designer's attitude. I can also call it character
or morality. Good design becomes
a "living figure" (Schiller). It is fascinating and dangerous.
For bad taste. For plagiarists. And for the all too
fast moneymakers. Good designers
love danger.

5. November 2025

Olaf Leu (1936 *) began his career as a typographic designer at Bauersche Giesserei, was assistant to the creative director at the Hanns W. Brose advertising agency and set up his own studio in Frankfurt am Main in 1971. He made a name for himself as a calendar pope and unconventional packaging designer, as well as the long-standing head of the optics test segment in manager magazin's annual "Best Business Reports" competition. He is "an equally astute and quick-witted design thinker and journalist - as stated in the 2018 laudation for his acceptance as an honorary member of the Typographic Society Munich - brought the TDC, the ADC of New York and Japanese design to Germany and is a critic of design competitions, which he calls "bluff" in many forms. The bar of creative and ethical standards he sets for himself and his design colleagues is in the high-precision range, as can be read in his autobiographical works "Bilanz 1951 bis 1970" - "Bilanz 1971 bis 2011" - "i.R." and "R/80" as well as in "Das Letzte Interview".

Bodo Rieger, born in Berlin in 1930, was a teacher of German and German literature in his early years. His extensive interest was in the German language. This explains his change of career as a copywriter at the William Heumann advertising agency in Frankfurt am Main. From here he moved to the American branch of the advertising agency BBDO. His next professional station as a supervisor was the creative branch of the advertising agency H.K. McCann in Frankfurt, which operated a creative brain trust in Königstein im Taunus. From here he was appointed marketing director at the Reemtsma cigarette group in Hamburg. Rieger eventually set up his own business and advised well-known German companies on corporate identity and corporate design. As a publicist and brand strategist, he has published numerous articles and technical papers. As a copywriter and creative sparring partner, he was a successful companion of the Olaf Leu Design Studio in Frankfurt until 1991, which was one of the most renowned and most awarded design studios in Germany. Bode Rieger died on October 1, 2000.

This article was originally written in German and translated with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI).

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