Lately, I've been thinking about my inner compass — the one that guides me through work and daily life. I've touched on my design ethos before, but this feels like something more personal. It's a lightweight breakdown of who I am, both as a designer and a human, shaped by the values, mantras, principles, people, and quotes that influence what I create and how I try to live. But consider this compass a living thing — subject to change always and forever.
Values in design
- Intuition
- Simplicity
- Lightness
- Accessibility
- Utility
- Experimentation
Values in life
- Patience
- Perseverance
- Compassion
- Community
- Slow living
- Self-discipline
- Self-care
- Trustworthiness
Mantras
- Less, but better.
- All limits are self-imposed.
- Love the process more than the result.
- Respect doesn't require shared beliefs.
- Learn something from every person and every moment.
- Courtesy costs nothing.
Principles in design
- Form follows feeling, just as form follows function.
- Create for clear and intuitive experiences.
- Craft with care for the details.
- Be influenced by taste, not by trends.
- Design for tomorrow, not today.
- Build for people, not for plaudits.
- Always question additions — only include what is necessary.
Principles in life
- Before the how and when, ask why.
- Be translucent, not transparent.
- Get mud on your shoes.
- Practice saying no.
- Invest in what is living.
- Cultivate habits that nurture your growth.
- Comparison is the thief of joy.
- Live within your means.
- Give back as often as you move forward.
- Exercise your freedom of expression.
Quotes in design
"Design is not the act of amazing an audience with the novelty of forms or materials; it is the originality that repeatedly extracts astounding ideas from the crevices of the very commonness of everyday life." – Kenya Hara
"True design lies in a realm counter to trends." – Sori Yanagi
"Good design is a matter of discipline. It starts by looking at the problem and collecting all the available information about it. If you understand the problem, you have the solution. It's really more about logic than imagination." – Massimo Vignelli
"Things get more refined as you make mistakes. I've had a chance to make a lot of mistakes. Your aesthetics get better as you make mistakes. But the real big thing is: if you're going to make something, it doesn't take any more energy—and rarely does it take more money—to make it really great. All it takes is a little more time. And a willingness to do so, a willingness to persevere until it's really great." – Steve Jobs
"Minimalism is not a style, it is an attitude, a way of being. It's a fundamental reaction against noise, visual noise, disorder, vulgarity. Minimalism is the pursuit of the essence of things, not the appearance." – Claudio Silvestrin
"We need to aim at essential things, removing every redundant effect, every useless flowering. Elaborating a concept on mathematical bases, on fundamental ideas, on elementary structures. We strongly need to avoid waste and excess." – A G Fronzoni
"A designer who wants to achieve good design must not regard himself as an artist who, according to taste and aesthetics, is merely dressing up products with a last-minute garment. The designer must be the creative engineer. They synthesise the completed product from the various elements that make up its design. Their work is largely rational, meaning that aesthetic decisions are justified by an understanding of the product’s purpose." – Dieter Rams
Quotes in life
"One day or day one. You decide." – The Minimalists
"I do believe that you don't need more than is essential, and that is hard to define. It depends on how you live — you need a certain amount of things for life to go smoothly, though if you have more than you need it gets in the way." – John Pawson
"There's an infinite amount of materials with which to build our lives — but sometimes the best way to build is to subtract." – Joshua Fields Millburn
"Structure isn't a rule — it's a rhythm." – The Minimalists
"Don't use an excuse for every stupid thing. There is not too short, too tall, too heavy, too warm, too wet, too humid. There is just one excuse: too weak. So don't use excuses, try harder." – Alexander Megos
"Successful communication depends on how well we listen, rather than how well we push our opinions on the person seated before us." – Kenya Hara
"Obey the principles without being bound by them." – Bruce Lee
Where does your compass point to? Send me an email to yours. I'd love to read it.