Method is a design firm with offices in Manhattan and San Francisco working in print, web, branding and multi-media. They’ve only been around since January 1999 and already have a great body of intelligent work. Mike Abbink answers some questions.

With the redesign of your site, do you think that people, in general, are seeking simplified design and solutions just to make sense of the information overload we are subjected to every day?

Yes, I think people in general are tired of all the overload and horribly organized information as a whole. More and more we’ll see simplified design; after all it’s what I think design is all about. The Method site is also somewhat of a reaction to the bad taste Flash has left in our mouths; there’s something about it that just gets old. We thought we’d just use html to focus on our work and lose the gimmicks.

Has this simplification in Method’s web presence changed the way you will approach projects in the future?

It’s hard to say, we always try to do the simple thing, but many of our clients want wiz bang stuff in Flash and think the simple designs are not catchy enough (marketing folks, of course). Generally, I think we’ll continue on our path to try to do what we think is good design work.

What does the creative team at Method do before you begin any project?

We have brainstorm meetings and follow-up meetings all the time. We try to keep the team together as much as possible. We really try to focus on what the problems are, so we can better understand what we’re designing for. The rest seems to fall in place.

Method does a lot of cross media work. Do you find that you enjoy one medium over the other?

I personally enjoy print work, but we have a mix of people in the studio that love new media as well. We have a nice balance of designers that enjoy most mediums, but I think we’d like more print projects.

Were you apprehensive about starting the work for Adobe: Defy the Rules and Smash the Status Quo? Having no limits can be tough sometimes.

We were, but after a good solid brainstorming session, things began to make sense and the directions became almost obvious to us. The first few days were tough, but once you connect with some strong ideas, it’s easier to focus on something.

Have the companies you’ve done work for been diligent in keeping their brand identity consistent on the web?

We’ve had some good luck, there’s always a few that seem to screw up the brand and destroy design work. We tend to give pretty detailed guidelines while the sites are built. Of course once the site starts getting maintained, the in-house team will make plenty of changes. And, over time the brand goes all over the place with no real focus.