Back in school, when I was really into industrial design, I watched a video of Jony Ive walking through Apple's hardware and software. Compared to Apple's slick ads today, it was a pretty plain video. But I wanted to understand the process and the thinking behind the design, so I was hooked. His seriousness and the way he thought about design stuck with me for a long time.
Recently I stumbled on his commencement speech by chance. He hadn't changed a bit. But this time it wasn't about the products. It was more personal. Lately I've been buried in metrics and routine at work, and it brought back something I'd forgotten a long time ago.
Here are a few lines that stuck with me.
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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.
