I am a project architect here at our firm. I enjoy working directly with the client to hear and understand their organizational values and mission.  I then work alongside the principals to establish strategic design concepts that guide the decision making of the whole process.  As the project develops, I coordinate many parties to materialize that original set of values among the project’s constraints.

WORDS OF WISDOM

Contemporary design work is like pioneer work. Very little data is known of any new territory and therefore exploring new ideas and exploring new worlds both require a strong logical mind & a strong emotional gut.  Look at Capt. Kirk and Lt. Spock for example.  One guy is all gut and emotion. The other is all logic. When the data exists, Spock saves the day. But when the data is not there, or when the data says dying is the only option, that’s when Kirk saves the day. Together like this they have convinced us they can boldly go where no man has gone before.

Meanwhile if you split them apart, they can barely stay alive on their own.  One would wreck the ship on too many gut decisions, while the other would except defeat in a lose-lose scenario.  So, they respect their need for each other.

Contemporary design work relies on the same dynamic. If you want to convince anyone that a new idea is worth exploring, then you have to prove your logical ability and inspire their emotions to carry risk when the idea moves into new territory. Likewise in your workflow, technical diagrams help validate the logic behind a concept as much as possible, while rendering communicates the emotional power that concept could carry.

Keep those both working closely together and you will certainly discover a value previously unseen. We believe in this here, and that’s why we hold a keen eye for new staff that help us diversify our perspective and strengthen our spirit.

So if you have a bold concept, and you really believe in it, then make the commitment to both draw + render your way all the way through it. Yes, you are going to hit a million obstacles. But if you analyze your context, trust your gut, and keep drawing and rendering, you will begin to understand and realign all the strange threats pressing against you, and you will lead the way to a new value.