28/09/2017
FOLLOW YOUR INSTINCTS INSTEAD OF THE LINE.
A straight line won’t necessarily take you in the direction you need to go: your instincts, on the other hand, will always direct your faithfully. By all means choose a line, but interpret it, see it from different perspectives and directions, that’ll create a far more interesting pattern to follow. SEIZE THE MOMENT because THE TIME IS NOW, so stop waiting for somebody to tell you what to do, take and informed risk and start doing it: how much do you actually have to lose?
CREATE CHANGE: DESIGN DIFFERENTLY. A new dynamism is bubbling in the creative community. With design you can change everything, anything, nothing. Change is very necessary right now, be part of it. LEARN THE RULES, THEN PLAY THE GAME just as well as the others. There are those who do it, and faster, and get where they want to go before you do, but learn from them then do it better yourself. The design industry is tough, study the system and the rules, then you can then play it to your advantage. It’ll never be straightforward, but it’s about enjoying the roll of the dice. BE OPEN TO POSSIBILITY - ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN, IF YOU LET IT. But you do have to let go of what you know, what you’ve done before - BEING SCARED IN NOT AS TERRIFYING AS IT MIGHT SEEM - and take a step forward, even if you’re unsure of where you’re going or what’s going to unfold.
ALWAYS STOP, LOOK AND LISTEN. Inspiration and advice comes in the most unlikely of places, if you don’t stop & look, you might miss it. DON’T EXPECT THINGS TO HAPPEN THE WAY YOU THINK THEY WILL HAPPEN, and don’t be scared when that does happen! Sometimes THE PROCESS IS EVERYTHING: how you design is as important as the design outcome itself so document and value each element properly. GOD IS IN THE DETAILS (Mies Van Der Rohe) it’s the little things that you do / say / design / think / write / record - that may seem unimportant and insignificant - that are the most important. The real power in good design, is in its details. SO WHAT. Really, so what if you screw it up, so what if you have to start again, so what if you don’t get it right the first time, so what if nobody else believes you’re doing it right, so what if you’re not sure you’re doing it right, so what if it’s not right, so what if it takes twice as long to figure it out and get it right, so what is the worst that can happen? IF YOU DON’T TRY, YOU’LL NEVER KNOW. IF YOU DON’T ASK, YOU’LL NEVER GET. From everything you do, from all those around you, wherever you go and whatever you see or hear, please ALWAY LEARN. Remember that you have a choice, you can screw up, you play safe or you can AIM HIGH AND HIT HARD. Maybe you won’t get what you were aiming for, but you’ll still get more than you would have done by only looking at the ground. YOU MUST EMBRACE RISK, if you LOVE WHAT YOU DO, because that comes across in your work, that passion sells you as a designer and your designs. RESPECT those around you, what they do, and what they say is always valuable. DO SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING, LET’S SEE SOMETHING.
“Manifesto for a New Beginning”, by Suzanne Martin, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, 2010.
