Dualism

© Andrew Meredith

I have always wanted to be an architect. I think I read more architect books than product design's. I know more architecture firms than I know product design studios. I hang out at architecture events - and never at product design's.

Not that I belittle product design, but multidisciplinary is always in my blood. I can play a thousand music instruments at a basic level, I can work on photoshop with my fingers, I can do a bit of woodwork, I can bake cakes, forgive me, but I think I am a jack of all trades.

This somehow, made me think on a detail level, something that a product designer would do. That's also probably why I adore architects much with their birds eye view.

Thinking about it, I then realized that I never actually think about how product design or what I do can make impact to other people. I always said that I want to be an architect because I want to make bigger impact. Perhaps in my mind, I was saying bigger product.

Product design has become a specific area that I've chosen. The only thing I could remember was I thought that I can make products, which will be useful for people's life. However, in reality, this idea is challenged by the many temptation around me. Sometimes it's not about how useful the design is, it's becoming how much margin can we produce. That statement is at the extreme end. What needs to be remembered is that we have to remind ourselves on a daily basis, of what we are, what we want to achieve from the start, because our work can only be impactful in the end if we have a correct process. It's not something you can embed by the end of your work.

It has always crossed my mind that I want to jump into another discipline, feeling that I'm a bit stuck in the impact making scheme, which in reality seems harder than when I think about it. But truth is, it's hard everywhere else too. So I decided that I'll go forward with this path and rethink about how I can work on the subject that I've chosen.

Same guy.