Friday, March 31, 2006

Ego A-Go-Go

After work last night, I went to a panel discussion hosted by the National Design Museum. The subject, "Ego", brought together three National Design Award finalists (Stefan Sagmeister, Paula Scher and Michael Rock) to discuss the conflict of designer and client ego when working on an account, but it quickly devolved into each designer showcasing some of their more visionary work. But you don't attend lectures to hear people wax on and on about a theme, you just want to hear interesting people share interesting anecdotes and maybe dispense a bit of personal philosophy.

That's pretty much what happened. Each panelist presented a short reel of their work, all of which was really inspiring. As near as I can tell, once a studio creates a reputation for being very avant-garde and creative, they're allowed a lot of license to do wildly imaginative design work with a real dimensional feel. The work showcased was so much more than words and pictures arranged aesthetically on a page. These people are designing and peddling complete, fully-formed ideas. And the beauty of a big idea is that it has a trickle down creative effect, incorporating a myriad of design elements and skills (video production and design, humor, fine art, graphic design, copy writing, branding, etc.).

The whole thing was pretty thrilling. It really makes me excited about the process of having an idea and then following it through to completion, for better or worse, stretching my own skill set and abilities along the way. !!! I can't wait to get my hands dirty and...and do things!

No comments: