Principles for the Studio
The studio is a sacred space for designers. Taking it online — like we're doing with the MDF — means we need to get serious about what we mean when we say "studio".
We decided to build a set of principles for the MDF studio. Something that all the faculty agree to, and that all the students sign up to, so that there's a standard of minimum viable behaviour that everyone can expect. It can also be a jumping off point to the canon that we want to situate our work within.
Principles are a great format to do this: aspirational and not too prescriptive.
Engage Relentlessly
"you've gotta eat the world with your eyes…" — Chip Kidd
Read everything you can get your hands on. Listen to it all. Engage as widely as possible. Go deeper. Exhaust your environment. Use all your senses.
Fear Less
Be fearless about trying out new things — you have nothing to lose. Don't try second guess the perfect outcome, it's never as good as your fearless imaginative response.
Share Promiscuously
Put your thoughts down and share them. Regularly. This is good for everyone: it makes the tacit explicit & it builds the studio discourse.
Make Often
Use your craft to expand the conversation. Build your tolerance for ambiguity. Craft your skills with making the abstract concrete.
Make Better
When we critically engage with each other's work, we make it better. Give this gift regularly, and expect it in return. Fiercely defend your work, and the standard of the discourse around it.
Be Demanding
"…pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students" — Sister Corita Kent (& John Cage) ᔥMaria Popova
Expect more from your peers, and the converse will help you grow.
Be Kind
Cultivate a generosity toward failure, and you're already learning. (remember to breathe)
Improvise Together
"The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams" — principles of the Agile Manifesto
Your unexamined rules (and roles) are the ones that'll limit you most.
Multiply the Futures
Work on holding multiple visions of the future in your mind at the same time.