Design Storytelling

@johnmaeda drew my destiny in the sand at the @riflemaker_soho gallery this afternoon. Playing my part in Maeda’s four day consultancy performance piece was a brief, but rather unforgettable experience.

Knowing you are going to have a one to one audience with a creative guru can be an intimidating prospect. The set up at Riflemaker with gallerists in labcoats ushering you into Maeda’s presence, in hushed reverent tones, purposely served to exacerbate the anxiety.

“Are you ready? Are you sure you’re ready?”

The man is clearly a master of creating an atmosphere.

The reality of the experience was a surprising mixture of disconcerting, charming and enlightening. The sandpit arrangement, with him on the inside and me on the outside, created the necessary space between us. I am the outsider. The challenge? Can I break down the boundary with my presence and words?

There was very little eye contact from Maeda, as he stamped down the sand to create his newly blank canvas, but his quiet presence was authoritarian.

I told him the fortunate story of how an outing for a cookie brought me the opportunity to take part in his ‘fortune cookie’ performance - he liked the poetry of that. I explained that I write for TreeHugger and Cool Hunting, of which he muttered an approval. I told him briefly about my design work with climate scientists.

Then I layed it on the line… all the while Maeda drew my story in the sand, cookie and all.

My question: “From one interdisciplinary person to another, how do you find a harmonious balance between the long + deep and the wide + shallow?”

I struck a chord. Maeda said he also experienced the discomfort of being interdisciplinary, but that he had gotten over it because he was happy in himself.

He then recounted a visual reference he got from the Japanese designer Takashi Okazaki (if memory serves correctly) who contrasted the eastern view of building a wide sturdy base with a shallow elevation (Maeda draws Mount Fuji - Hokusai style - in the sand), with western narrow tall constructions that topple over (Maeda draws a vertical line that immediately resembles a skyscraper).

In summary John Maeda’s advice consisted of these salient points:

• Be confident enough to forge your own path
• Build a wide and sturdy base
• Be happy in yourself
• Don’t let other people take you down
• Move out in front of the pack
• Be a leader and a role model
• Enjoy your cookie

Thanks John - I will!

I left, as Maeda hurriedly erased my sandy story with his feet, clutching a signed print out of one of Maeda’s tweets (a poetic embodiment of making the digital physical). The tweet, for which I paid the princely sum of £2, says:

“The shortest communication path between two people is a straight talk.”

Precisely.

Maeda Studio