styrofoam, motherships, prototypes and budgets
The last two days have been quite revealing to me. In the past 48 hours I have had two conversations about design, and creativity that have spawned memories that I have always had, however; never expressed until now. What's interesting - is that as I look at these experiences, I am realizing the impact they have had in my life... Your life.
Styrofoam, motherships, prototypes and budgets
"My staging area..."
I would get scissors, some Elmer's glue, some markers (permanent for beautification) - and I would begin my quest to build the "Mothership". A flying machine that would someday circle the earth, OR at least the backyard, I was not at all opposed to small victories ...
"Never be afraid to fail. There is something to learn in failure..."
I would draw shapes of the "mothership" on the styrofoam and cut them out to the finest detail. I would draw shapes of the wings, and cut those out with absolute precision. Then I would construct the ship... One piece at a time.
"The prototype was born..."
After the prototype was constructed rigorous testing would begin. I would climb to the top of the shed in our backyard, and I would toss the "mothership" high into the air... Already at a elevated altitude the "mothership" had ample opportunity to catch wind and make a glorious flight ....
"Believe in your ideas, your prototypes... They are, in fact, the beginnings to really great innovations ..."
Sometimes I would build ships that worked immediately, and I would save the design and build upon the design, adding form and function, beauty and simplicity until I took the original design to what I called the "breaking point", the point where the modifications took away from the ships core function... To fly. After building many ships and executing many experimental flights I would in the end, have a new model of the "Mothership", the machine that would SOMEDAY fly around the world ... The beauty to this ... I had zero budget to work with, BUT I had plenty of ideas, and even more dreams ...
"Never allow budgets to stand between YOU and INNOVATION ... Use whatever it takes to prototype... Clay, wood, paper or styrofoam, WHATEVER... THIS is creativity."
So early on I learned that you could take styrofoam, and you could build motherships, OR at least prototypes with little to no budget ....
crayons and coloring books
I can clearly remember refining my ideas about design when I was about 8 or 9 years old. My mother would buy me coloring books (lots of them) and she would buy me crayons (lots of those too) and I would sit in my room for HOURS on end, tracing images (because I thought that it looked "clean" when I did that) and coloring pictures in the coloring books. For HOURS I would do this...
As I got older the crayons evolved, the books evolved, I evolved...
I can remember working with my dad in the shed on woodworking projects, and more importantly I can remember his keen attention to the details, and his relentless pursuit of excellence. He was a "self-taught" Woodworker... A Designer. I admired that."The details matter..."
I can remember things breaking around the house, and I can still hear my dad calling my name - to help him solve the problems at hand... He knew I could think them through, design them through, "design think" them through ...
"Design thinking was not taught to me ... it was nurtured and built in me ... Refined later."
It was my early childhood experiences that shaped my DNA. I had the opportunity to do the things I was DESIGNED to do at an early age. Through my environment, my parents willingness to let me be who I was designed to be prepared me for my today...
pearl s. buck: the creative mind
a misfortune is a tragedy,
a joy is an ecstasy,
a friend is a lover,
a lover is a god,
and failure is death.
Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create - so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.”
purpose and calling are not what you find... they are what you do.
A big part of what I do deals with working with people. When designing a system, a brand or a new product or service, it's imperative that we dig our way down to the ethos of the organization, BUT more importantly, it's imperative that we dig down to the ethos of the people involved within the organization OR at least the key individuals that have a direct effect on the results and sustainability of the desired end, may it be product, service or brand. And it's because of these dealings that I get this question more times than I can count ....
"How do you discover the thing that you were designed to do? How do you discover your purpose, your calling?"
Though simple, it's probably one of the toughest questions one can ask themselves, and others, and this is largely due to the fact, it should never be asked. Fact of the matter is, most people KNOW what their purpose and calling is, BUT what they identify with even more than the ingredients of their destiny is one word..
Fear.
It's fear of the unknown ideas that support most God given purposes and callings. In many cases, the thing that people are designed to do, has no proven revenue model, or any structure of sustainability that can be "seen". The reality of this for most people, OR we can say the "illusion" of this for most people is un-bearable. For example .... If Jack Dorsey operated in what he could see, OR if he focused only on the revenue model of Twitter, today we would be "Twitterless", and if CEO Steve Jobs did not walk in his calling, and his divine purpose we would have no iPhone, AND God forbid Bill Gates moved and operated in what he could see, we would be "Microsoftless". SO the big question is ...
The idea that people do not know what they are CALLED to do, or DESIGNED to do is a stretch ... From a babe, you know what you are designed to do. It is time, life, expenses, and mis-guided passions that throw us off course. If you are always itching to bake cookies, IF That excites you, then you are probably supposed to be introducing a new and innovative type of cookie to the rest of us. If knitting and sewing are your true loves - then perhaps you are supposed to be making clothing that can be shipped to third world countries that need cost effective textiles ... Just perhaps.
You know what you are designed to do, OR you at least have a clue. The real question(s) ...
2. How do I free myself of the fears that have trapped me in the cycles of my current reality
3. How do I sustain myself while walking in purpose and destiny
So... In MY opinion... Calling and purpose can not really be found, they come pre-installed. The question is: Do you have the courage to do it? Purpose and calling are not what you find, they are what you do. Do what you are authentically passionate about, and active your purpose, unlock your calling.
compelling idea: tom peters
we can no longer ignore the big design problems
As I dig deeper and deeper into the idea of "designing bigger", I continue to run across issues dealing with health care. Though the looming policies and architectural challenges continue to mount, I really feel that the emergence of design as a holistic practice will help add some balance to the problems at hand. In this recent article by Sean Hughes, Senior Design Director - Philips Design Hong Kong; we can clearly see that our challenge as designers and design thinkers spans a much bigger space than local borders ....
The Best of Both Worlds by Sean Hughes
http://tr.im/bestofbothworlds
champion sound - 12th edition
designers: different types, different functions, one purpose
From time to time people ask me what I do, and with absolute confidence I say ... Design. I say it with confidence because I have been a Designer for over 17 years of my life. The single most puzzling part of it all to me however; is though design is all around us, many of us do not know the differences between a graphic designer and an experience designer, an industrial designer and a interior designer. When I say... "Designer", the instant idea, that comes to mind, is "graphic designer" or "interior designer" and this brings me to a set of ideas of my own...
1. Though design is all around us, innovation - through design; is crippled by our lack of understanding as it pertains to the different facets of the field
2. Many designers are mis-placed because many mid-level (even high-level) leaders lack the ability to identify the unique abilities of the different "types" of creatives they have at their disposal
3. The overall design thinking of an organization becomes stagnated because designers are looked at as solely "pretty thing makers" and NOT "process innovators", or "organization transformers" ...
These ideas are surface at best, and I want to keep this post simple for the sake of us gaining a different perspective of the designers within our organizations and among us in our everyday lives. Let's first find out what a designer is and NOT assume that we "know"...
Designer: A person who designs or CREATES something. OR as psychologist Herbert Simon would say... "Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones".
SO based on this lens, we can easily say that we are ALL designers at one level or another, and THIS is indeed good news. I am privileged to know all kinds of designers ... Interior designers, system designers, experience designers, graphic designers, user experience designers... I could go on and on, however; the idea here is that just about everything you see, touch, smell or even experience comes from the hand or mind of a designer.With this revelation we can quickly conclude that designers are an very important part of our every day lives... We can also conclude that there are, in-fact different types of designers, AND designers have different functions however; if we look deeper we will find they all really have the same purpose, arguably - creating courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones. We "prefer" to have elegantly designed cars versus "ugly" ones, we would "prefer" to have a "well oiled system" at the hospital versus a "cumbersome" one. Fact is however, the answer rest in design and design thinking.
Organizations can tap into new levels of innovation if they can somehow sift through all of the "stuff" and get down to the ethos of each of their employees BUT primarily the creatives - the ones with a proven record of design thinking capabilities, and re-leverage them for optimal results.
As for me... IF I had to be classified as any "type" of designer, I would have to be classed as a "experience designer", however primarily I am a "design thinker". I look at the totality of the problem to be solved and I am able to intuitively and systematically devise or "design" solutions to accomplish a desired result. With 17 years of creative/design thinking under my belt - I am able to lead creative teams into the innovation of new products, services and brands. So when I say I am a designer, my view of what design is and what it does is broad and wide ranging. From the design of a website to the design of a customer experience - I leverage design thinking to get results. Creative - innovation driven results.
I am only one type of designer however; and within organizations there are generally many. The true power of innovation is tapped when organization leaders at every level have an understanding of the "types" of designers they are leading. They tap into greater levels of innovation when they know the "functions" that each of their designers serve, and the single goal, the common purpose of progressive/disruptive innovation becomes the driving force behind the organization.



