practice
Seeking mastery in design means being comfortable with making your own path. Forge the new road. Others will question it and doubt it. But that path will eventually come to fit your soul. It will not only lead you into deeper parts of your craft, but to hidden parts of yourself.
Paying attention and listening. Looking for connections and relationships in the outside world. Searching for beauty. Seeking stories. Noticing what you find interesting, what makes you lean forward. And knowing all of this is available to use next time you sit down to work, where the raw data gets put into form.
There is no telling where that
... See moreRick Rubin • The Creative Act: A Way of Being: The Sunday Times bestseller
Writing is a method of paying attention to the experience of being alive. More than just putting words on the page, it is about engaging with the world in an attuned, open, and curious way. Whether it’s writing essays, painting, dancing, or cooking — it’s all variations of the same act: A way to show your work as you figure out how to be alive.
Rosie Spinks • Show your work
I like the idea of a person moving through “nodal points” propelled by an innate desire. I also like the idea of foregrounding agency from the perspective of the user or viewer or consumer. People often think about making work as if the person on the other side will have no choice but to enjoy it if the work is “good” enough, but it’s nice to think... See more
Here for the Wrong Reasons | Are.na Editorial
Emulate your heroes Find inspiration in other people you admire – your “heroes.” Whether Peter Drucker, Frances Hesselbein, sports legends or faith leaders, our heroes can be people we know, people we know of, or even fictional characters. Birsel finds that the “qualities we recognize in other people that inspire us are things that we have and want... See more
“Every time you’re given a choice between disappointing someone else and disappointing yourself, your duty is to disappoint that someone else. Your job throughout your entire life, is to disappoint as many people as it takes to avoid disappointing yourself.”
Emily Ballesteros • The Cure For Burnout: Build Better Habits, Find Balance and Reclaim Your Life
We tend to think of the artist’s work as the output. The real work of the artist is a way of being in the world.
Rick Rubin • The Creative Act: A Way of Being
Let design-values underpin your dreams Birsel identifies five interdependent values that underpin the principles of design and can guide the creation of your ideal life: optimism, empathy, holistic thinking, open mindedness, and collaboration. Designers “think positively” and believe they can find a better solution no matter how hard the problem.... See more
The basis of our humanness is in our ability to create things. Our art—in the broadest sense—is whatever we make visible in the world. Each of us has to choose the scale at which we want to be artists of our own lives. It may be your family or your job or your neighborhood.