Crazy Walls

What designers can learn from detectives

By Molly Wilson, 2018

The crazy wall is easier to describe than it is to define.

It is a wall covered in photographs, maps, printouts, Post-it notes, passwords, ziploc bags with pieces of hair or fabric, newspaper clippings, tickets, timetables, index cards, sketches, calendar pages, receipts, and floor plans.

Almost always, they are connected – usually with red string.

When you first see a crazy wall, you are meant to think several things.

This problem is extremely important.

This problem is extremely complicated.

This person is extremely devoted to solving it.

As with so many things that become patterns just underneath our consciousness, we have the internet hive mind to thank for the designation "crazy wall." Once you hear the term, you know exactly what it means.

The designation "crazy wall" leaves it open to interpretation whether the wall is crazy or whether the maker of the wall is crazy.

Before we go any further, let's about the word "crazy": it's a linguistic shortcut that can be considered offensive. I actually try to avoid saying it. The word "crazy" both trivializes and exoticizes mental illness. But instead of refusing to use the word, let's look into why it's stuck to these walls.

What do we actually mean by "crazy"?

On the one hand: unhinged, wild, uncontrolled, anarchic, disorganized.

On the other hand: focused, devoted, obsessive, fixated, directed.

The opposite of crazy is normal. This wall is normal.

When we say "crazy wall" we are using this word to distance ourselves from it. "We" would never make a wall like this. "We" are not crazy.

Your wall is your mind

Source: Crazy Walls

Here's how Parks and Recreation's organized, cheerful overachiever Leslie Knope makes a crazy wall. It looks like she bought a corkboard particularly for this purpose. She printed out labels and color photos. Her strings are color-coded and stretched taut.

Leslie Knope's walls are crazy in the same way that a crazy quilt is crazy. Sure, it's not symmetrical, but have you ever tried quilting? There's nothing crazy about the precision and attention to detail that even a "crazy" quilt requires.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Source: Crazy Walls

In Wes Anderson's "Isle of Dogs," American exchange student Tracy is also a precise, diligent type who won't give up, and a reporter for the school newspaper. Here's the wall she puts together as she uncovers why dogs have been mysteriously disappearing. She can't be stopped. She will uncover the truth at all costs, and she won't need to raise her voice to do it.

Source: Crazy Walls

When we look at Sherlock, the walls start to look darker. This wall is not a convenient way to keep track of information. It's an expression of obsession.

When does an innocent bulletin board, mood board, or cork board become a crazy wall?

The answer is: as soon as you add the string.

This is my bulletin board from my childhood bedroom. Estimated date: 2001.

When I add string, connecting everything that seems to me now to share a common theme, common source, common location, or common function, it starts to look like my innocent childhood debris is some kind of crime scene. Like I was kidnapped or ran away at the age of sixteen and somebody is trying to figure out what the hell happened. Even when we know that I've given the red thread treatment to myself, it still looks intense and even a bit violent.

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Chapter 2

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Chapter 3

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Chapter 4

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