1.0 Design Thinking & Creative Intelligence - An introduction to what?

Blog Entry 1: Introduction to this subject

As an introduction to you and your journey thus far that has led you to want to pursue a career in Design and any clarity you may have on the specific direction you want to head in. Share examples of designers who have inspired you and why you aspire to achieve design outcomes like them.

In my youth, & through to this very day, I've always had a fascination with dreaming up, designing, and building things. The first thing I remember trying to build when I was about 8 years old, was a bomb out of an old radio. Essentially, I was pulling it apart and tinkering with it in the hope that I could make it do something, especially something exciting (to my young, hungry, and curious mind) - like a 'big bang'. I got a good ‘smack’ for that little effort.

We lived on the fringe of a small town that had a recycling tip (transfer station) about 3km further out into the countryside, so about a 6 km round trip on our push bikes. Me & my friends used to sneak up there after closing and rummage around for spare bike parts, the previous months expired (surfer, hot-rod, easy-rider and 'adult') magazines, and discarded stereo systems. We made no end of audio devices and push bikes with whatever tools we could find &/or repurpose. Again, not always knowing what we trying to do – but gleefully enjoying the journey of discovering.

In my very early teens, I persistently tried repairing & mounting an old Villiers cylinder mower engine (with magneto flywheel - it was so cool, an utterly wild idea that I nearly had it working) into an old push bike I knocked together.

..I had a vision, & I was hell-bent on finding out it was, and, how to manifest it.

In my mid-teens, I would hang out with my neighbour whose father, first owned a vehicle repossession business, then a wrecking yard. I would go over there and help my friend work on the many ‘shit-boxes’ they had as 'practice work'. We had grand visions for the old those old wrecks – some were not clear but had strong ‘vibes’ & it was our job to chisel away the stone to reveal the vision and the art. Other times, we knew exactly what we after and just had to figure out how to realise it.

The mechanical side things, be it electronics, combustion engines, or just general design & fabrication is fascinating. The details, structure, and flow paired with its form & functionality are constantly inspiring, and whatever I learn from one thing I try to apply to another – no matter how far removed the concept or practicality is. 20 years later I learned this practice to be something similar to 'pattern and anti-pattern design', and 'reuse, repurpose, and misuse'.

In all fairness, I am an architect and artist at heart. I get electrically excited when I see a particular balance of form and function, and this history and ongoing fascination with conceptualising, designing & building something carries over into work as Business Architect & Business Analysis, and my previous roles as an infrastructure and application developer.

For me, art and engineering are 2 sides of the same coin and cannot be separated. My journey in design is towards the ultimate: To create more, with less and realise the full creative journey, in its entirety - no matter what I am doing (including digital and business transformation).