A Lesson from the Convention

National American Institute of Architects conventions are wonderful educational experiences. Attendees can choose from among hundreds of hours of continuing education seminars and workshops on design, technical, legal, business, and other relevant topics. Keynote speakers are often inspirational, providing us global perspectives beyond the field of architecture [1]. Organized tours give visitors the chance to know and appreciate the host city. Equally valuable are the informal opportunities to interact with and learn from architects and other professionals from across the country and around the world.

In addition to all these activities, each year the largest hall of the convention center is devoted to the AIA Expo, where hundreds of manufacturers and service providers market their products and services. At the Expo, architects can learn about the latest technologies and products available in the building industries.

But the Expo has another, subtler lesson for us.

Every booth has prominently displayed signage identifying the company, the name and type of product, and some description of the product. Much of this signage uses straightforward, descriptive terms, such as wood windows, 3D printers, and sliding doors. But at a convention a few years ago, I first became aware of something else. As I wandered through the Expo, I noticed these descriptions were often embellished with other, less meaningful words. Instead of just wood windows, it was innovative wood windows. Instead of just 3D printers, it was 3D printing solutions. And instead of mere sliding doors, it was sliding door systems. Other recurring words were sustainable, performance, quality, creative, leader, and integrated. What, I thought, is going on here?

At this point, I could see that more than casual observation was needed. The time had come for some serious data collection. Selecting a large number of random aisles for my research study, I counted the occurrences of the most frequently seen words [2]. Some words didn’t appear as often as I expected them to; inspire/inspiration, intelligent/intelligence, transform/transformative, and unique/uniquely were only occasionally seen. Other words appeared often enough to be noticeable, but not annoyingly so: create/creative/creativity, quality/high quality, integrated/integral, and lead/leader.

And the most overused words at the Expo? In fifth, fourth, third, and second places were, respectively, performance/high performance, sustainable/sustainability, innovative/innovation, and system/systems. In the number one position was—have you guessed it?—solution/solutions. I saw waterproofing solutions, opening solutions, security solutions, fireproofing solutions, and software solutions. In fact, it seemed as though every product could be turned into a solution. (By the way, I don’t recall seeing a single instance of the word problem. A lot of solutions, but no problems.) Some booths managed to use two of the top words, offering, for instance, innovation solutions or sustainable solutions. One company did even better; its sign read “B—— Systems: Innovative Solutions, Intelligent Choices.”

And what’s wrong with solution, system, innovation, sustainability, and performance? Nothing, if they are the best word choices for the situation and add meaning to the message. For example, there are many legitimate uses for performance; some products, such as high-performance coatings, have the word built into their generic names. But adding solutions to waterproofing or systems to sliding doors doesn’t add meaning, and occasionally using words such as new, original, or creative may avoid draining the life out of innovative.

Okay, maybe you’re thinking, so what? Who cares how manufacturers describe their products? And you’re right: the manufacturers are paying money for their booths (for which I and every other convention attendee should be most grateful), and they can say whatever they want to attract the attendees’ attention. But the problem (whoops!) is that most of us attendees don’t even notice the use of these words, because we overuse them in our own writing. And the reason it’s a problem (damn it!) is that when we all use the same words, we all start sounding the same. When a prospective client is hearing the same words from nearly every architect, the one architect who does sound different may be the one who captures the client’s attention.

Most of us try to make our designs stand out from the crowd and not look like that of other architects and designers. But, to take a lesson from the convention, we should also do it with our words, so we don’t sound like other architects and designers. Think of this as a language solution, solving a problem we didn’t know existed.

Footnote:

[1] Recent keynote speakers who were, for me at least, especially memorable include installation artist Theaster Gates, MIT professor Neri Oxman, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycostie, Architecture for Humanity co-founder Cameron Sinclair, and Colin Powell and Bill Clinton (you know who they are).

[2] Although my survey is a few years old, I haven’t noticed any difference in later conventions.