http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1kNEGyNQ54

This is a video of famed Canadian magician Jay Sankey performing an amazing card trick of his own invention. Personally, I think his performance is near-perfect; the execution and timing of everything is flawless. My favorite thing about it is the use of a compelling narrative to frame the trick. As I mentioned in an earlier dissertation about Ricky Jay, a narrative is a great way to make a feat of magic really speak to the audience, and that's exactly what Sankey does here. Plus, he also makes sure his narrative involves elements that the audience can relate to. Everyone has dreams, takes photographs, and plays with playing cards, so despite the supernatural air inherent in any feat of magic, Sankey's narrative makes some sense to people by adding up ordinary phenomena to come up with something extraordinary.

Sankey's wonderful performance ties into design because his narrative method of presentation is really an issue designers have to think about all the time. A design can't simply be an amalgam of outlandish elements; it won't make any sense, and it will alienate people. Any design has to be something that people can relate to in some way. That being said, it's easy too go too far on the other side of the spectrum and deliver something that people are too familiar with, which makes for a bland, unoriginal design. The key is to assemble familiar elements to make something new. Apply conventional things in unconventional ways. Turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Only then can a design accomplish the best of both worlds by delivering something that people can both relate to and be impressed by at the same time.