A few months ago, I found myself in Milan, having lunch with one of the most famous and successful designers in the World. At their house!!!
It was bonkers.
I had no right to be there, but the person I work for occasionally is a very good friend and he had wanted me to attend a few meetings … which is how I found myself one Tuesday lunchtime, eating pasta and trying to talk in broken Italian to them and their family members.
But this isn’t a post about my good fortune, this is a post about one thing they said that really hit me.
This designer is known for the distinctive nature of all they create.
The intricacy and craftsmanship that goes into every element of what they do.
Their work is instantly recognizable and this has built the foundation of their success, prestige and aspiration for decades.
Anyway, at one point – in mangled Italian – I asked them about where does ‘craft’ come into their process of design to which they looked at me like talking to a small child who didn’t know what the fuck they were saying [ahem!] and simply said:
“When you ask about craft, it sounds like you see it like an outer layer of the process. We don’t think that way. For us, everything is about the integrity of what we value and believe. It starts from the inside, never the out”.
In some ways, it sounds obvious, but it hit me hard.
So much of our industry is based on ‘making something’ and then ‘crafting the details’ to make it shine.
But they do it differently …
The ‘shine’ is the starting point and their goal is to ensure that is never lost in all they do.
It’s not an ‘after thought’, it’s the focal point.
More than that. It’s judging craft more by how it feels than how it looks. Or said in ways more relative to our industry – craft isn’t about gaining applause from the industry it’s done to help others connect more deeply to the work.
And somewhere along the line – in our quest for efficiency and speed – we have forgotten that. And as a result, we have increasingly lost it. Both in terms of having the time to do it and – arguably – the ability to. Because too many people see it as an ineffective use of time, when it is literally what helps give what we do it’s real value.
I couldn’t help but think of the Strategy Is Constipated, Imagination Is The Laxative talk Martin Weigel, Paula Bloodworth and I gave at Cannes in 2023.
There, we argued that too much of the straegic process is designed to blindly follow where logic takes us versus going where imagination reveals we can play. And by doing this, we are actively removing the excitement of possibility from our approach rather than doing all we can to protect it.
And that’s one of the reasons we are where we are.
Protecting the wrong things and as a byproduct of that, destroying what makes us valuable.
And while I appreciate some will say that is both a naive and commercially stupid statement … maybe, just maybe, what it actually reveals is how our whole industry has lost sight of how to build things versus just say things.
Lost in the cult of systems, tools and market evaluation rather than appreciating and understanding the integrity of who they are, who they’re for and where they can go.
Or, as the nice hosts of my lunch in Milan also said.
“Shortcuts lead to long term oblivion”
Which – to paraphrase the brilliant Lee Hill – explains why building a career these days is less about what you do, and more about identifying the optimum time to get out.
_______________________________________
Today is the 2nd anniversary of us saying goodbye to our dear Rosie. In some ways it feels even longer than that but the loss still cuts deep.
She was a complaining princess, but she was our complaining princess and I’d like nothing more to have her here, bossing Bonnie about – who would love her whereas Bonnie would simply be tolerated.
Love you Rosie. Miss you.