Love it! I read this Dr Paul Samuelson quote in Sir Ken Robinson’s book The Element on my way to work this morning and it resonated so that posting it here is the first thing I’m doing before getting on with the rest of my day. I am definitely, for the most part, a ‘happy warrior’, except on the really bad days when I’m just a grumpy warrior ;-)

I am one of the lucky ones that from early on in life absolutely knew that art and design was the path for me. Doesn’t mean that I haven’t struggled to find a clear and meaningful route to forge ahead, or had to occasionally deviate onto a side road in order to make ends meet, but in general I’m still on my chosen path.

Having said that, the ways in which I’ve used my skills in art and design to make a living has been, and continues to be, constantly surprising (The environment! Who knew?) - keeping this happy warrior on her toes and helping retain that vital sense of play. The path might be preordained, but you can definitely choose which direction you walk in.

Very much enjoying the following three things today:

a) Adrian Shaugnhnessy’s ”The 12 paradoxes of graphic design”

1. There’s no such thing as bad clients. Only bad designers.
2. The best way to become a better graphic designer is to become a client.
3. If we want to educate our clients about design we must first educate our self about our clients.
4. If we want to make money as a graphic designer we must concentrate on the work, not the money.
5. For graphic designers, possessing verbal skills is as important as possessing good visual skills.
6. Most ideas fail, not because they are bad ideas, but because they are badly presented.
7. Designers who use the argument “I know best because I am a professional” are usually unprofessional designers.
8. We often imagine that all the good projects go to other people. Not so, in fact, nearly all jobs start off as neither good nor bad.
9. The best way to self-promote is to avoid talking about yourself.
10. A designer’s brain is capable of much more than making things look pretty.
11. If we believe in nothing, then our clients will have no reason to believe in us.
12. Designers often imagine that they need to be embedded with the clients, but there are advantages in being an outsider.

b) Tobias Bergdahl’s beautiful graphic interpretations of each paradox - see my faves (no.10) above and (no.6) below - the rest on his site.

c) Luke Neff’s excellent interpretation of Shaugnhnessy’s list with “The 12 Paradoxes of Education”

Marvellous stuff all round.

More excellence from Umair Haque in his recent post: Is a Well-Lived Life Worth Anything?

As ever, Umair is looking for betterness models and here, in the ancient greek word of Eudaimonia, he seems to have found a term that encompasses the concept of living well (“eu meaning ‘well’ and daimon - daemon, which refers to a sort of guardian spirit.”)  in a more profound manner than just simple happiness. Importantly…

“The multiplication of eudaimonia can be gauged neither by “GDP,” then, nor by tracking self-reported happiness, nor by basic, simple measures of basic human development, like the HDI — but rather, by understanding whether or not people are becoming their better, wholer, grittier, wiser, fundamentally more accomplished selves.”

This takes me back to Solitaire Townsend’s recent tweet “Don’t try to be happy, be passionate about something instead (it’s more likely to work).”

In contrasting the old order of ”hedonic opulence” with the new order of “eudaimonic prosperity” Umair continues his search for meaning and encourages us to do the same:

“…it’s about living meaningfully well. Its purpose is not merely passive, slack-jawed “consuming” but living: doing, achieving, fulfilling, becoming, inspiring, transcending, creating, accomplishing — all the stuff that matters the most. See the difference? Opulence is Donald Trump. Eudaimonia is the Declaration of Independence.”

@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

Good ol’ Charles Eames - would so dearly have loved the chance of hanging out with him and Ray for a day. They were such brilliant designers, with a beautifully direct creative ethos:

“Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design.”

On an evening when I am frustratedly ‘picking away’ at my corner, I’m bolstered by Charles’ words that my careful, intense picking might make a difference.

My current design storytelling task is to try and find an engaging way to illustrate interconnectivity. It’s all about the connections…

As Charles said: “The details are details. They make the product. The connections, the connections, the connections. It will in the end be these details that give the product its life.”

Oh for some Eames-like divine inspiration… I’m trying to channel their playful, joyful and yet functional energy. I might have to sleep on it…

The very wonderful Sir Ken Robinson @TEDtalks picking up where he left off at TED 2006. “So as I was saying…”

My favourite quotes from this year’s talk:

“There are people who love what they do. Because isn’t what they do, it’s who they are. They say, ‘but this is me, it would be foolish for me to abandon this because it speaks to my most authentic self.’”

“Human communities depend upon a diversity of talent, not a singular conception of ability.”

“It’s about passion and what excites our spirit and our energy. If you are doing the thing that you love to do, that you’re good at, time takes a different course entirely… If you’re doing something you love an hour feels like five minutes. If you’re doing something that doesn’t resonate with your spirit five minutes feels like an hour.”

“We have to recognise that human flourishing is not a mechanical process, it’s an organic process. You cannot predict the outcome of human development, all you can do, like a farmer, is create the conditions under which they will begin to flourish.”

The great Ira Glass talking about the gap between “killer taste” and work that “falls short”. I feel acutely the distance between the two on a daily basis. Thanks to the amazing Jonathan Harris for pointing me in Ira’s direction.