lynette design

Bruce Mau - Incomplete manifesto for growth

Some points that Bruce Mau makes are challenging, like:

3. Process is more important than outcome. When outcome drives the process we'll only ever go where we've already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we are going, but we know we want to be there.

This challenges me to remember when designing to let the design process take me to new places. I want to be more driven by process rather than outcome, and I can practice this in uni assignments, by exploring possibilities and being influenced by what I discover and where the process takes me rather than being more stuck in an idea.

8. Drift. Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies. Lack judgement. Postpone criticism.

Sometimes I find it hard to make the time to explore happy accidents, and to postpone criticism, I can be too hard on myself which may lead me to discard an idea before I have developed it more through just drifting rather than being too task oriented.

15. Ask stupid questions. Growth is fuelled by desire and innocence. Asses the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.

This reminds me that learning is about not knowing, but wanting to know. It would be great to be more childlike in the desire to learn. To learn through play, and to find the whole world exciting and see the possibilites and the intriguing in everything.

23. Stand on someones shoulders. You can travel further carried on the accomplishments of those who came before you. And the view is so much better.

I really need to explore other designers more. I realise that I don't have a favourite designer, and that makes me think that I really need to develop my awareness of other designers, and what has come before and what other people are doing. Just reading these readings has made me realise how exciting ideas there are that I have never explored yet. I want to expand my knowledge of design, what has come before, and get a better view from standing on their shoulders.

29. Think with your mind. Forget technology. Creativity is not device dependant.

This is a good reminder, because I feel like my skills are lacking, and I don't know how to use certain technology, and this limits my ideas. I need to remember to be creative in thinking, and then seeing how to do it, rather than thinking what I can do with the technology, and limiting my ideas to what I can do. It would be great to grow in skills to be able to achieve ideas, rather than to limit my ideas to what I am able to do.

posted by nicole @ 10:03 am