Concept & Audience

Personal preference.
Is there a right and a wrong way to go about the design process? Sure, there are good habits and bad, ways to be more efficient, more thorough, and more varied, but is there really a correct and incorrect?
The article makes some good points: in order to be successful designers, we have to be aware of our audience, client, and in turn, the concept. Our concepts can be derived from things like images, other websites, music, literature, packaging, friends, family, anything. What we do with the inspiration is our choice and it is necessary to remain consistent with our concept, client, and audience. If a designer doesn't relate with their audience, they become unsuccessful without research, as in the case with N'SYNC in this article.