On Call
Thank's to Paul Rustand's thoughtful article, we've identified the gulf between passion and profession that most designers seem resigned to straddle. We're not alone though.Talk with just about anyone in any profession these days, and you'll find a similar consensus: Following one's heart does not lead to making a decent wage, while making a good living seems to exclude doing something meaningful and fulfilling. Paul points out the division between the sacred and the secular that exists in our lives. This compartmentalization of our lives into work, passion, play and the sacred stems from the ancient Greek philosophical mindset that forms the basis for our Western thinking and training. When you add the intense compartmentalization and dehumanization effects of the Industrial Revolution on Western culture, it's no wonder we live divided lives. Other cultures, like the ancient Hebrew culture, viewed work, passion, play and the sacred as an interwoven tapestry of life.
In bridging the chasm between role and soul, I've found the book Cry Hope, Cry Pain: A Guide to the Dimensions of Call by Elizabeth O'Conner to be particularly helpful. I never read books twice, but I've found myself in fits of despair going back to this one again and again. O'Conner was a writer who herself was on a journey to connect passion and profession:
In bridging the chasm between role and soul, I've found the book Cry Hope, Cry Pain: A Guide to the Dimensions of Call by Elizabeth O'Conner to be particularly helpful. I never read books twice, but I've found myself in fits of despair going back to this one again and again. O'Conner was a writer who herself was on a journey to connect passion and profession:
"I grew up in the cold and hungry depression years before World War II when the main goal in life was to find a job. It did not matter much what the job was. The essential thing was to have work that one went to in the morning and returned from at night. This is still true for vast numbers today. Where a choice is possible it is not exercised. The individual is not inner directed but influenced by salary, prestige, future opportunities, the chance of leading friends, not to mention the conscious and unconscious wishes of parents, so that even people who appear to be privileged are rarely doing work that is related to call." (p. 80)As we stumble around trying to find our bridge to call, we need to find trustworthy and experienced guides. Who or what are your guides on the journey into call as a designer?
posted by fivemcclungs at 8:08 AM
1 Comments:
BLANK -- Wow- this is certainly THE issue. How to be a designer AND acknowledge the sacredness of knowing and serving a Holy God. I know that I think on this issue all the time, especially as the available work that edifies such a position is few and far between. When I first started my business, I wrote a statement about design that I felt helped me to bridge the gap between my Christian self, and the identity that had already seemed to have created itself from the public and secular perspective of my clients. The question became- what can I say about design that is about design and not necessarily Christianity, yet still is supported and informed by my faith... here's what I came up with:
+human
The world is full of people with varying perspectives and certainly varying levels of expertise. Design should be about connecting these individuals, and helping them realize their vision despite their lack of expertise in certain areas.
Though design is also a creative field, it is primarily a service-oriented field. We as designers serve by offering our creative perspective and skills to those who either lack time, resource, or expertise to fully realize their project.
Design is grounded by human interaction. As designers, we seek to interact with our surroundings by both observation and input- this is an experiential relationship with our environment. Thus, design moves forward, rather than becomes defineable by finite terms. Designers see things in the world, discuss them, learn from them, improve them, and replace them.
As long as people are designers, this is an undying cycle that should thrive from the diversity of people and perspectives in the world.
+progress
Progress should be understood by process, rather than finite achievements. From the perspective of design, one makes progress not by an increasing proximity to a certain goal, but by an increase in frequency of interactions. Consider travel. If one travels alone, the possible methods of transit and destinations are finite- determined by one's individual resources- both corporeal and incorporeal. However, if traveling among others, the possibility of change and variation in methods and destinations increases exponentially. This is certainly true of design, if not more true.
A designer's work is contingent upon others' ideas and needs. A designer does not work alone; thus, because of interaction, the possibilities are limitless. By reconsidering possibility, we also must reconsider the meaning of progress.
+landscape
Ok, so we are living and moving and making. We are humans making progress. This happens within the landscape we are busy observing and changing. Our neighborhoods are full of indexes of interaction and communication. For instance, a sign posted at a street corner represents what design essentially is: Someone identifies a need for certain information to be conveyed. This is discussed and particular issues arise related to human factors and where the sign exists and who typically interacts with it. Methods for communication are suggested and evaluated based upon the original need and the human factors involved. A preliminary version is created, evaluated, and refined. A final sign is created and posted. Now, our interaction with the environment has been changed, both by the physical existence of the sign, and by it as an index of collaborative activity among people in the neighborhood.
Put simply, our world requires collaborative function. This is what design is all about. It is not only about making things, or perpetuating fashion. It is about participation in the creation of our primary and phyiscal landscape, and the landscape of ideas that is the foundation on which anything is created.
Post a Comment
<< Home