“It’s a mess up here.” Marcel Wanders is talking about his brain, and the necessary disorder of an open mind in design. “Philosophy is not one truth, but thousands of truths. You don’t have to believe in just one thing. When you choose one idea, you close yourself to the rest.”
After reading this quote, I couldn’t agree with him more. Wanders sure has a way with his words in that they contain such deep meanings and truths. I believe that his words have inspired me to want to be a better designer who is willing to take risks, expand my comfort zone and do things I normally wouldn’t do. He’s given me the confidence to believe that you should not set limits for yourself.
In school, students are like robots. We attain the information we learn from the teachers and do our assignments, projects and design our spaces accordingly to their lectures, standards, and expectations. But where is the creativity? We’ve simply hid it in the back of our minds and hearts because we’re afraid of failing. We’re so focused on getting a good mark that we choose to make design choices that we know will be approved by the teacher and are comfortable with. So in short, we take the easy route by doing the generic, same, boring, already-been-done designs. So how does one stray from that one minded way of thinking?
Wanders believes that the key to great, innovative, new design is to always have an open mind, and to have fun with it. By being open-minded and not taking things too seriously, he allows himself to think of all the crazy ideas that could be used to come up with a strong concept. How else would he have thought of using a rope, something we don’t pay too much attention to, and decide to create a chair out of that simple construction. Or using a soft, delicate doily, which basically acts as a decoration on the dining table, to create a usable, functional and sturdy table. Now that’s what you call an open mind. He thinks of all the possibilities and does not limit it to one idea because otherwise, the design will be static and unoriginal. And Wanders is all about originality.
His open-mindedness isn’t shown only in his way of designing, but also in his belief that “philosophy is not one truth.” We are often shaped to believe that as a designer, you should have one good, strong philosophy, such as being “green” in all your designs. And with that one philosophy, it will mark your identity as a recognized interior designer in the world. However, Wanders breaks this belief and instead believes that one should not be limited to one philosophy but to have as many philosophies as long as it defines you and your works.
Therefore, Wanders is a man of inspiration. He believes in the strength of an open mind, the beauty of bringing back the old by mixing it with the new, the joy of “inspiring people to make their life a masterpiece,” making beautiful things & the challenge of changing the familiar into something extraordinary.
One of my favorite teachers taught me that school should be the one place where you can be as creative as you can be, since everything you design in your classes are designed for you, and not for some client. Also, because everything is imaginative or hypothetical! Although I do totally know what you mean about feeling like a robot. In directed studies I chose to go for a safe, generic concept instead of trying to be unique and over the top because I was so concerned about it being too complicating and I didn't want to risk failing :(
ReplyDeleteThe bottom line that we can all learn from Marcel is that with open mindedness, we can all find our identity and therefore become more confident in designing what represents YOU! (and not be terrified of doing it)
p.s if we all are always so scared of failure, there would not be such amazing work created by such amazing people such as Marcel, or Patricia =)
-Leanne Tran
Yes it's true. I feel like sometimes in school, especially space A, we had to follow strict guidelines and if we didn't follow them, we would not get a good grade. That affected our creativity because we were so scared that if we wanted to do something out of the ordinary, it would not be accepted by the teachers. But learning about how Marcel breaks out of the ordinary and tries to change the familiar into something extraordinary and unique is really inspiring. It taught me especially that being open minded can lead us to great design. If we close ourselves off to just designing what we think people are used to or familiar with, then interior design would all be the same. We would never move forward with new design.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, I feel like second year in the Interior Design Diploma Program really breaks us out of the technical and one-sided way of thinking. Don't you feel that design theory and even lighting and graphic design has allowed us to be free with our thoughts and to think of interesting concepts? I feel like we have more free reign to express ourselves finally as interior designers. Design theory has opened my eyes to more abstract designs and concepts and I'm no longer afraid to think over the top.
- Tiffany May
Ya this year is definitely much more eye opening than the first two years of the program. I'm glad that we're doing things like creating exhibits in theory and in lighting, we are composing more open minded lighting plans, instead of those boring old RCPs we did all first and second year.
ReplyDelete-Leanne Tran
Yea the technical stuff wasn't too much fun. But I guess we have to learn all the technical before we can add our creativity to it. Otherwise we'd be doing everything wrong. I especially enjoyed the museum of space. Given such a simple task and creating such complex conceptual models was really truly amazing. And I think that's what these great designers do. They find a problem or ask a question and they try to create something out of it. By exploring all the different ideas, who knows what you'll come up. That's why Marcel's preaching about keeping an open mind is something we all should remember when designing. We should never choose the easy route.
ReplyDelete- Tiffany May