Industrial Design에 관심이 많았던 학창 시절 조너선 아이브가 애플의 하드웨어와 소프트웨어에 대해 설명하는 영상을 본 기억이 있다. 유려하고 눈이 즐거운 요즘의 애플 광고와 달리 단조로운 축에 속하는 영상이지만, 디자인 프로세스와 의도가 궁금한 나에게는 흥미로운 영상이었다. 그의 진중함과 디자인에 대한 태도가 기억에 오래 남았다.
최근 우연히 그의 졸업 연설을 보게 되었다. 그의 태도는 여전히 똑같았고, 이번에는 단순히 아웃풋에 대한 설명이 아닌, 조금 더 개인적인 이야기를 들을 수 있었다. 현업에서 숫자와 관성에 매몰되어있는 나에게 잊고 있었던 오래전의 감정을 다시 불러오는 내용이었다.
인상 깊었던 내용들을 짧게 정리해본다.
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I loved my practice, and it started to help inform my sense of identity.
It helped me understand how I could contribute to society and to culture.
I began to think of myself as a designer rather than a shy person that couldn't read very well or speak with any confidence.
As I became more preoccupied though with becoming a professional designer, I started to worry about an imbalance.
While developing my design practice legitimized and channeled my creativity. I started to feel that my childhood dreaming and imagination was being left behind.
Now colleges is of course exactly their place, exactly their time to focus on developing our professional skills.
But, what bothered me was just how easily my attention was consumed with the specific skills of design rather than the fundamentally important ones of creating.
Not to sound hopelessly dramatic, but I almost felt I was betraying the dreaming and the wondering that had really sustained me as a child.
Without imagination, without profoundly new thinking and potent ideas our practice has no purpose.
I came to learn from him(Roy Morris) that creating and thinking should always be afforded a rare respect.
This is the important thing, always a rare respect, not only when the ideas are good and not only the circumstances are easy and convenient.
Lastly one of the wonderful consequences of being open is that you find yourself actually listening.
Listening well means you need to be quiet.
Great ideas can come from the quietest voice.
