brief thoughts about design and creativity this week

some brief thoughts about design and creativity this week - its been a lesson in not just coming up with concepts and ideas, not just advancing or developing them, but applying them appropriately to the project in a way that is productive and relevant.

the last few weeks have been a period of unparalled professional creativity, in that I have been able to sustain the output of ideas, or creative idea generation, substantially greater than I have at work, possibly ever before. A concern immediately arises whether i will ever have the opportunity in the near future for this kind of creativity, or whether I will have the ability/capacity to adapt and develop the ability to generate ideas at this level of output and interest fruitfully and appropriately in a project-related context.

conceptual development in this nanjing project, as I said to a colleague, is now about being a professional and knowing when to pull back and realize that the great potential of the ribbon concept in its original ‘extruded’ form may not see the light of day. The two questions that remained in my mind from Thursday were whether the practice was capable of accepting and politically allowing such a project to leave the office, and whether they would be capable to see the project through without redesign once I’d left. Considering the political manoeuverings at senior levels, and considering what I know about the practice’s previous projects, it will NEVER happen. The mature and professional thing to do obviously is try to push the best work possible given the circumstances, client, budget, program and political climate.