Design Thought Leader

We all have a certain passion in life some of us pursue it full time other pursue it when time allows. The only failure is not taking the time to pursue it at all.

I was having a peaceful moment earlier this afternoon, watching a deer graze in the field and I started thinking about the decisions I have made in the past ten years and how I got where I am.

It was interesting to me to remember how many of those decisions have been rather split second. I more or less had a vision of what I wanted to be doing, believed I could do it and went for it. Sure I put thought into what making those decisions would mean and how they would effect my life, but in doing so I realized that we tend to over analyze. We start out having faith in our ability to accomplish something and then go about breaking it down until we talk ourselves out of it and instead pursue the safer, less passionate route.

In doing this we end up hurting ourselves in the long run. We hinder our ability to grow and ultimately end up becoming more fulfilled in our lives, careers, hobbies, whatever the case may be. …

Sometimes it is extremely hard to talk yourself up instead of down and away. Coming up with the idea is only half the battle, convincing yourself to take action is when it counts. Don’t be afraid to take the leap and pursue your passion, even if it means hardship you will come out ahead in the long run if only you learn from the experience.

Jeremy Jaymes
Designer, Developer, Owner of Papertree Design

Ultimately, it is the process. What the printer loves is the doing of it. … The nicest thing that anyone has ever said about my work is that ‘It’s always so suitable to the purpose.’ Yes, make it attractive, but make it be what the text needs it to be. …

The old guys got it remarkably right. There was an intuitive understanding of what constituted readable text. And so you can be at home with letterpress. It will die, eventually, because people will no longer remember how to do it. It’s OK. I’m only responsible for my watch. I’m thankful everyday that I get to do this.

John Kristensen
Proprietor, Firefly Press

Some people will tell you creativity is part of your make-up. That you can’t learn it. I disagree. I believe that there are different levels, and natural talent for sure, but I strongly believe that creativity can be learned, or at least manifest itself in people who are exposed to passionate, inspiring people, or exposed to environments and opportunities that can help bring it out.

Passion takes a person to greater heights. In design, the most passionate never stop thinking or solving problems. They work on a project after the budget has all but gone, with an aim to get it perfect. They do personal projects; they talk with a fire in their eyes about a piece that inspires them. They see opportunities where others see restrictions or walls. I nearly always take on designers who show a passion for their own work.

You can’t fake passion, I will say that. Although passion in design isn’t always an easy thing to maintain. Most of the designers I know have lost theirs at one time or another. I’ve always felt that to get the most out of being a designer, you have to have an interest in something else as well, away from the world of design. It can provide an outlet for frustrations, or act as a reality check, when work can become all-consuming.

Jason Little
Creative Director of Corporate Brands, Sydney office of Landor Associates

I’ve always been fascinated by the different ways people interact with objects and space and how their behaviour may reveal underlying habits. This is probably because I’m a little nosey! In most cases my ideas come through observing and questioning this interaction. …

Often people say they don’t have any particular habits or rituals; this may be because they’re embarrassed to admit it or they’re so engrained in their daily life they do them subconsciously. …

In most cases design strives to simplify things and present them in a considered and logical way however people still instinctively find their own way of use that satisfies their own criteria. It’s this act of manipulation that I find really interesting as it reveals underlying needs that the object alone does not fulfil.

Nadia Pedreschi
Designer

This thing that is happening on the web right now with Social Media has everybody talking because there is a lot to talk about. All of the connections and conversations and industries and ideas are exciting to watch and to learn from and to participate in. You can start by listening in on your industry or those conversations that touch on topics around which you feel passionately and find room for your own voice. I try to encourage clients to participate in the dialogue because, quite simply—that is content. Respond to conversations that are already happening. Bring them back to your blog and take a position. Whatever it is—whether you agree or disagree—your contribution adds richness to the discussion. I think people often believe they need to comment on a blog post or article and that must be the end of their interaction with the material. Really, there’s nothing wrong with taking it home and expanding on your comment, your opinion, your reaction to the piece and encouraging others to do the same. … At the end of the day, if you love what you do and you are willing to talk about it and share your passion and just plain participate—you’ve got yourself some content.

Nancy Lyons
President and CEO, Clockwork Active Media Systems

Design has many connotations. It is the organization of materials and processes in the most productive, economic way, in a harmonious balance of all elements necessary for a certain function. It is not a matter of facade, of mere external appearance; rather it is the essence of products and institutions, penetrating and comprehensive. Designing is a complex and intricate task. It is integration of technological, social and economic requirements, biological necessities, and the psychophysical effects of materials, shape, color, volume, and space: thinking in relationships. The designer must see the periphery as well as the core, the immediate and the ultimate, at least in the biological sense. … The designer must be trained not only in the use of materials and various skills, but also in appreciation of organic functions and planning. … that design is indivisible, that the internal and external characteristics of a dish, a chair, a table, a machine, painting, sculpture are not to be separated. The idea of design and the profession of the designer has to be transformed from the notion of a specialist function into a generally valid attitude of resourcefulness and inventiveness which allows projects to be seen not in isolation but in relationship with the need of the individual and the community. One cannot simply lift out any subject matter from the complexity of life and try to handle it as an independent unit. …

There is design in organization of emotional experiences, in family life, in labor relations, in city planning, in working together as civilized human beings. Ultimately all problems of design merge into one great problem: ‘design for life’. In a healthy society this design for life will encourage every profession and vocation to play its part since the degree of relatedness in all their work gives to any civilization its quality. This implies that it is desirable that everyone should solve his special task with the wide scope of a true ‘designer’ with the new urge to integrated relationships. It further implies that there is no hierarchy of the arts, painting photography, music, poetry, sculpture, architecture, nor of any other fields such as industrial design. They are equally valid departures toward the fusion of function and content in design.

László Moholy-Nagy
Painter, Photographer and Professor, Bauhaus

A brand’s value is merely the sum total of how much extra people will pay, or how often they choose, the expectations, memories, stories and relationships of one brand over the alternatives.

A brand used to be something else. It used to be a logo or a design or a wrapper. Today, that’s a shadow of the brand, something that might mark the brand’s existence. But just as it takes more than a hat to be a cowboy, it takes more than a designer prattling on about texture to make a brand. If you’ve never heard of it, if you wouldn’t choose it, if you don’t recommend it, then there is no brand, at least not for you. …

Design is essential but design is not brand.

Seth Godin
Author

If you want to have your own firm, you have to come to terms with the fact that it means that more than 50% of the time will be running the business, not designing. At a certain point you have to embrace it, or you will end up resenting it and it will sour the freedom you have. In all honesty, probably 80% of my time is the logistics of running everything these days, and then I come home and do the design work at night. Someone has to run the ship, and the someone ends up being you or you capsize. No where else can you have this freedom, so the fact that 80% of my day is spent on paperwork is fine because I get to design and make whatever I want, whenever I want. I will take that option every time. No one else is going to hand you your dreams, you have to go out there and build them. There is no golden opportunity, no free ride, no client that will give you carte blanche. There is just you. You have to build your own future.

Brian Flynn and Dora Drimalas
Owners, Hybrid Design