brettworks

“A Brief Note On: Finding Your Voice

Pore over books and magazines, get online, read interviews with designers in different fields and discover, if you can, what moves them to do what they do. Scroll (God help you) through social media. Collect, curate, and digitally scrapbook. Train that algorithm to feed you something nutritious for a change” (129).

“Unearth the things you love, the things that speak to you, and ask yourself why they work—not just how.”

“Why the forms, connections, techniques, materials, details, and colors have been used and combined as they have, and why they are so special.”

“Think about what’s missing, underused, or ripe to be reimagined, and how these things might be applied to the kind of objects you care about designing.”

“Seek out the seeds of inspiration, hybridize, and nurture your own unique creative voice” (130).

“You can’t just conjure a new design out of thin air (at least I can’t). Instead, you have to spot it. And the best way to do that, is to draw it.
And draw it. And draw it” (132).

“Sketching is a bit like humming or strumming, groping your way toward a new song or melody. It would be hard to describe precisely what it is you are listening for, or what is guiding you forward” (133).

Callum Robinson, Ingrained: The Making of a Craftsman (2024)