Five Questions is a monthly series profiling argodesign creatives, highlighting their influences and inspirations.
How do you ‘Think by Making’?
I test a lot of my ideas with low-fidelity prototypes or by simply drawing things out on paper so I have more mental space to process things from different points of view. Sometimes you need to make something to really understand what form it needs to take. Even if the function is clear from the beginning. At times you might even find that this process gives you an opportunity to discover other problems your ideas might be more suitable for. I apply this perspective to all of my creative process(es).
I find this especially rewarding when making music. I may hear a section of a song I want to sample from and think it’s perfect. I extrapolate on how it would take shape in my head especially if i hear a song in passing. Most times I discover that the point of inspiration or sample isn’t going to work in the way I envisioned. This provides a window of exploration and discovery. Like “okay that obviously isn’t the vibe I’m going for or initially felt in my head/body, butttttttt.. if I halftime (slow the sample down by 50% in speed) or mess with the bpm in other simple ways, I’ll discover something quite wonderful.” As a designer, musician, and artist, I see a majority of my creative pursuits as ‘me at play,’ and with that I give myself permission to go down as many tunnels as I want, without an intention to ‘create value’. This is how I discover deeper value—an experience more meaningful than my forebrain could come up with. This is where I’m met with greatness. Some ideas cannot take ideal form without a serious amount of aimless exploration or what I call ‘play’.
What’s one of the gnarliest design problems you’ve ever solved?
Group chemistry in design challenges with non-designers in college — a multi-disciplinary team with young, talented, and learned individuals is not always easy to wrangle. Different disciplines cultivate different perspectives and unique expressions of confidence. What comes easy or natural to some may be very foreign to others. Especially when their grades are involved. The design problem itself wasn’t immensely challenging, especially considering the fact that it was an innovation project. I have a knack for those. But given how strong willed every team member was, it wasn’t easy being as flexible as I needed to be to ensure we were all on the same page. In the end, trust was built (like 2 weeks before our final project delivery) and we got an A. The experience taught me that sometimes you may know the answer to things, but facilitating the space for others to arrive at the same conclusion is an act of goodwill. At the end of the day, some things are about the growth of the journey, not the destination.
