Designing our way across the void
Remember that scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where he reaches the edge of a deep chasm with no way across? He summons his courage and takes a step into the void…and suddenly a bridge appears under his feet. I am a designer, and that is what my job feels like every day.
On a good day, anyway.
Design takes courage. Constant, relentless, everyday, throw-away acts of courage. As the inventor Nathan Myhrvold puts it, “to be creative, to think outside the proverbial box, you have to be willing to be wrong.” Being wrong is scary. To design anything new we need to take a step towards failure. Just as walking is a series of protracted falls, design is a series of protracted fails.
“When I’m playing piano I can easily fall into the habit of finding the exact same notes every time. I have to step outside of my comfort zone to play different notes. My fingers are wanting to go here and I have to intentionally go over here. And I can’t predict what that noise is going to sound like.”
— Andy Anderson
Each time you push the boundaries of your comfort level you are stepping out over the chasm and hoping something solid will appear under your feet. We can fashion a safety net of sorts through stress inoculation training: the repeated experience of stepping into the unknown and being OK — or, in other words, just doing our jobs. But there is no avoiding that creative work means constantly venturing into the unknown, and it takes a special kind of person to turn that into a way of life.
These moments are easy to pass by. I’m usually too glad to have made it across alive to want to look back. But the small acts of courage and the creative response that resonates from the deep, that catches our steps and shows us the way across, makes up the fabric of design, and art. It’s miraculous.
I am taking this moment to appreciate the design around me, and the thousand courageous steps it took to create. I’m looking at you, lamp! Hey compostable salad bowl! Love you, Medium UX!
To the designers out there, I salute you. May you continue to find solid ground across the void. And if not come find me at the bottom, enjoying my salad and a good read.
“Nowhere to go but down!”
— Paula Scher
Saunders, Teri, et al. “The Effect of Stress Inoculation Training on Anxiety and Performance.” Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, no. 2, American Psychological Association (APA), 1996, pp. 170–86. Crossref, doi:10.1037/1076–8998.1.2.170.
“How to Overcome Your Fear of Making Mistakes.” Harvard Business Review, https://www.facebook.com/HBR, 24 June 2020, https://hbr.org/2020/06/how-to-overcome-your-fear-of-making-mistakes.
Seen Him. Directed by Zenga Bros, featuring Andy Anderson. Powell-Peralta, 2021.
