Manifesto for Growth

After our class discussion yesterday I re-read Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth. Here are my top five statements along with what they mean to me.

1. Allow events to change you.
You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.

Even though my experience working at Conestoga wasn’t meant to help my design career it did in surprising ways. I’m now more comfortable speaking in front of people I have never met and am better at communicating my thoughts.

7. Study.
A studio is a place of study. Use the necessity of production as an excuse to study. Everyone will benefit.

Each time I read about design, in any context, I learn something new. One of the reasons I wish the day was longer is that if I had more time I could read more about design. The more I immerse myself the better I understand the logic behind design philosophies.

14. Don’t be cool.
Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.

This one might be hard to accomplish, being trendy can be fun, but creating your own trend is so much better! While I use a lot of sources for inspiration, I just take small pieces from each to mix my own style.

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

My best work is usually a result of sketches done by hand. When I do concepts without technology I feel less limited to make them look nice. I focus more on getting all of my ideas out, good or bad.

32. Listen carefully.
Every collaborator who enters our orbit brings with him or her a world more strange and complex than any we could ever hope to imagine. By listening to the details and the subtlety of their needs, desires, or ambitions, we fold their world onto our own. Neither party will ever be the same.

When a client comes in I try to write down as much as I can. The majority of the time I feel like I missed something, but by carefully listening I can get a good feeling for what the client’s needs are and what style they are looking for.

Read on to find your own favourites.