Following his visit to the BIG SEE Festival 2026 in Slovenia, PARK co-founder Frans Joziasse reflects on this year’s theme, “Too much? What is just enough?”, and what it reveals about the changing role of design leadership. As organisations navigate increasing complexity and abundance, the challenge is no longer identifying opportunities, but deciding which ones truly deserve our attention.

After attending BIG SEE Festival 2026 in Portorož, Slovenia, that was the question I found myself returning to.

At first glance, it sounds like a design question. This year’s theme, “Too much? What is just enough?”, explored how architecture and design might respond to excess, complexity and abundance. Across conversations about cities, sustainability, materials and the built environment, the challenge of “enough” surfaced repeatedly. Yet the longer I sat with the discussions, the more it felt like something broader than design alone. Increasingly, it felt like a leadership question.

For a long time, many organisations were solving for scarcity. Progress often meant adding. More products, more services, more functionality, more capability, more scale. Complexity became an accepted by-product of growth because, in many cases, growth itself was the objective.

But the context in which leaders operate feels increasingly different. Today, we are surrounded by more information, more technology, more possibilities and more competing demands for attention than ever before. Teams are not short of ideas. If anything, they are often overwhelmed by them. The challenge is no longer simply generating options. The challenge is deciding which options genuinely deserve attention.

That shift surfaced repeatedly throughout BIG SEE. Some of the strongest projects did not feel excessive or over-engineered. They felt intentional, focused and deliberate in what they included and equally deliberate in what they chose to leave out. The work often carried a sense of clarity that comes not from abundance itself, but from discernment.

What Abundance Means for Design Leadership

One of the strongest reflections I took from BIG SEE was the sense that design leadership is shifting.

For years, leadership often rewarded expansion. More activity, outputs, and initiatives. Yet many of the conversations at BIG SEE challenged the assumption that adding more automatically creates more value.

As possibilities multiply, judgement becomes more important. The question increasingly becomes not what could we do? but what should we do? What deserves our attention? What creates meaningful value? And perhaps most importantly, what should we deliberately choose not to pursue?

This feels particularly relevant to design leaders, who are often balancing competing priorities, growing expectations and an increasing number of possibilities. The ability to focus, simplify and create clarity may become just as valuable as the ability to generate ideas.

In many ways, leadership increasingly becomes an act of curation.

Why Constraint Still Matters in Design Leadership

Some of the most compelling examples at BIG SEE were also among the most constrained.

Whether through materials, footprint, budget or environmental considerations, limitations were not treated as obstacles to overcome. Instead, they became part of the creative challenge itself. Interestingly, many of the projects working within tighter boundaries felt clearer, more coherent and more resolved as a result.

This feels relevent far beyond architecture.

Inside organisations, constraints are often experienced as friction. Limited budgets, tight timelines, competing priorities, internal complexity. Yet some of the strongest leaders understand that constraints can also sharpen thinking. They force prioritisation, encourage harder decisions and help teams focus on what matters most.

Not every opportunity deserves attention. Not every idea deserves investment. Sometimes, the hardest leadership decision is deciding what not to pursue.

Why Sustainability Works Best When It Shapes the Thinking

Sustainability surfaced throughout the conference, but what stood out was how the strongest projects approached it.

Rather than treating sustainability as an additional requirement or a layer added at the end, it was built into the thinking from the beginning. Decisions about materials, longevity, maintenance, scale and behaviour were shaped through this lens from the outset.

This felt important because when sustainability sits outside the design process, it often becomes compromised. When it sits inside the thinking itself, it becomes direction.

The strongest examples at BIG SEE did not feel constrained by sustainability. If anything, they felt improved by it. More thoughtful, intentional, and better considered over time. That feels like an important shift for organisations trying to move from intention to meaningful action.

Why Human Experience Still Matters in Design

Despite conversations around innovation, systems and future technologies, the projects that resonated most deeply remained grounded in human experience.

The most compelling work improved people’s lives in tangible ways. Not through complexity for complexity’s sake, but through usefulness, clarity and care. This felt like an important reminder at a time when organisations are surrounded by more tools and technologies than ever before.

Technology matters. Efficiency matters. Scale matters. But ultimately, they are only valuable when they contribute to meaningful human outcomes.

For design leaders, this feels particularly relevant. Design leadership is often strongest when it helps organisations stay connected to real human needs rather than internal assumptions or operational momentum. BIG SEE reinforced that this remains just as important now.

A Final Reflection

The question “How much is enough?” has stayed with me because it feels increasingly relevant far beyond architecture or design.

At PARK, it also reinforced something we have been exploring through The High Impact Design Leader. As complexity grows, leadership becomes less about creating more, and more about judgement. The ability to frame what matters, connect decisions to sustainable value and understand what people genuinely need rather than simply giving them more.

Perhaps the challenge for leaders today is not simply how much more we can create but knowing what deserves our attention in the first place.

If this reflection resonates, you may also be interested in The High Impact Design Leader, our living handbook exploring what future-ready design leadership requires.