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A Mind Forever Voyaging II.

Feb 11, ’12 3:57 PM

Several months after I stopped writing in August 2011, I noticed my creative and thinking abilities had lessened (I label this collective “design”).  While I was still thinking of new ideas and concepts, I found they lacked the time (and “environment”) to develop.

Now that I’ve restarted this process, I am slowly regaining a sense of “flow” that I have been able to periodically achieve over the past several years.  It’s this sense of flow that ultimately drives new ideas and initiatives, both of which help pave the way for new opportunities.

The basis for building a solid design foundation is to continuously create.  In my opinion, writing, drawing, programming, building and reading are activities that  positively contribute to this “foundation” and are a method of creation in their own right.

While creation is key, it’s important to heed frog founder Hartmut Esslingen’s warning:

The way of design is only achievable via creative model-making and prototyping by the designer. Tools, both real and virtual, connect our mind with the real world. However, tools also define how we shape things: tools’ limitations enhance our deep involvement with them and the materials, and honing our skills ultimately leads to mastership. The curse of “easy” digital tools is to become complacent after relative early “successes.” This can lead to mediocrity and a loss of creative excellence. Like the new “polystyrene slates” of many new electronic products, where excellence is defined by how well the corners are shaped (a re-run of 1950‘s boxy design), our modern-day digital design software is the cause for zillions of repetitive and bland products. Charlie Chaplin’s classic film of mechanized dehumanization, Modern Times, is a déjà vu of our current state.

While his opinion is perhaps based in the industrial design arena (frog helped develop Apple’s foundation design language), his comments clearly apply to design disciplines outside of ID.

This is one tension of many that I will need to factor into my development strategy, and will be further explored in future posts.

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And so it begins (again).

Nov 28, ’11 4:17 AM

One of the core tenets in my life involves the belief that one can continuously improve, adapt and excel.  The concept of brain “plasticity” along with the belief that evolution is based not upon intellect or strength, but adaptability, provides motivation to keep moving forward.

One of the ways to achieve this is through writing.

I find writing invaluable because the very process of doing so provides me with the means to focus my energies in areas I feel are important.  I have found the absence of this channel stalls this thought process and I’m left with feelings of reduced intellectual and creative “progress.”  In basic terms, I’m “spinning.”

Furthermore, the very process of documenting ideas embeds them into my memory.  Not surprisingly, this becomes self-fulfilling; random thoughts serve as a foundation for ideas and concepts that embody increasing complexity and structure.  It’s these very concepts that open up doors in entirely new areas of development.

While this isn’t too terribly surprising to me, what is surprising is just how challenging it is to start writing again.

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Sade: Exemplar of Authenticity

Jan 4, ’11 7:12 PM

Earlier this year, Sade announced the launch of her Soldier of Love tour, which is her first world tour in over ten years.  Fortunately for me, I was able to secure a ticket to one of her U.S. shows!  There has always been something about Sade’s music that has always inspired me and I knew that this was a unique opportunity that I didn’t want to pass up.

When reading Sade’s “Bio” page on her web site, it appears that this interest is perhaps more relevant to me than I originally thought.  Here are a few excerpts to illustrate why.

Integrity

Soldier of Love is only the sixth studio album the band Sade have released during their 25 year career, and the first since Lovers Rock in 2000. For Sade herself, as the lynchpin of the group’s songwriting effort, it’s a simple matter of integrity and authenticity. “I only make records when I feel I have something to say. I’m not interested in releasing music just for the sake of selling something. Sade is not a brand.”

Reinvention

“I never want to repeat myself,” Sade herself says. “And that becomes a more interesting challenge for us the longer we carry on together.”

Persistence

Somewhat to her surprise, she found that while the singing made her nervous, she enjoyed writing songs. Two years later she had overcome her stage fright and was regularly singing back up with a North London Latin funk band called Pride. “I used to get on stage with Pride, like, shaking. I was terrified. But I was determined to try my best, and I decided that if I was going to sing, I would sing the way I speak, because it’s important to be yourself.“

Priorities and Timing

For most of the past 20 years, Sade has prioritised her personal life over her professional career, releasing only three studio albums of new material during that period. Her marriage to the Spanish film director Carlos Scola Pliego in 1989; the birth of her daughter in 1996 and her early 21st century move from North London to rural Gloucestershire, where she now lives with a new partner, have consumed much of her time and attention. And quite rightly so. “You can only grow as an artist as long as you allow yourself the time to grow as a person,” Sade says. “We’re all parents, our lives have all moved on. I couldn’t have made Soldier of Love any time before now, and though it’s been a long wait for the fans – and I am sorry about that – I’m incredibly proud of it.“

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