“Intention is all there is. The work is just a reminder.” ~ Rick Rubin
By Gregory Ronczewski, Director of Product Design at Ibbaka. See his skill profile.
“Our thoughts, feelings, processes, and unconscious beliefs have an energy that is hidden in the work. This unseen, unmeasurable force gives each piece its magnetism. A completed project is only made up of our intention and our experiments around it. Remove intention and all that’s left is the ornamental shell.”
The above quote comes from The creative act: the way of being by Rick Rubin. Following the author's advice, I randomly opened the book and found the above mentioned paragraph. He said that often, a line from a page from a book would contain a message relative to a piece of work that occupies the mind. With this book, pretty much any sentence will ring some truth with anyone involved in a creative process - in other words, every human being because creativity doesn't apply only to so-called artistic endeavours. I agree with all my heart with Rubin. I always thought my design profession was similar to a plumber, carpenter or car mechanic - a confirmation from him put a smile on my face. We all create, which is the true nature of every human being.
I am finishing work on Ibbaka's Customer Value Journey, and right away, I sensed the random paragraph that I quoted at the beginning of this post contains a deeper meaning. It does, and here is why. Last week the team decided to meet in person and work together on the outline I presented. Most of the time, we work remotely and get pretty good with distant collaboration. But in this case, we opted for a traditional meeting sensing that it would give us a better chance at progressing the work. We were right. It would have been a great session if not for the fact that, for some reason, the working file did not save all the notes we added together. At first, when I discovered the discrepancies, I was not happy. But then, I realized that it was not a big deal, simply because the output, the text boxes we placed along the value journey that had been lost, did not matter. The discussion, exchanging ideas, and the collaborative process based on our intention are what mattered. This is what Rick Rubin describes when he says, “A completed project is only made up of our intentions and our experiments around it.” Even more, at some point, Steven Forth, Ibbaka’s Co-founder, asked if there was a better format for the final output. Initially, I thought a fancy PDF generated from Adobe Illustrator was the optimal solution, but then I realized it was not. It was far from optimal to place a lot of emphasis on the look rather than creating a space open for collaboration. So, instead of producing a final artwork, I switched to Google slides to prepare a living document that we all can use with or without the skills required by Illustrator. A win-win situation originated in a temporary setback that was not really a setback.
I read a few more pages from Rubin's book, and this is what awaited me a few pages from the opening paragraph.
“Beware of the assumption that the way you work is the best way simply because it’s the way you’ve done it before.”
Another line worth reading again and again. It contrasts with the recent excitement surrounding artificial intelligence with its chatbots, algorithms and things that are supposed to bring us... what exactly it suppose to get us that we don't already have? Synthetic cheese, artificial intelligence, socialist economy—substitute-for-everything. Each term contains a contradiction. It was so clearly visible when some of my high school friends in the 80s decided to study the economy, of course, not any economy but the socialist economy, confirming that empty store shelves, non-existing products, and chocolate resembled candies all pointed out to the cancelling effect the word "socialist" had on every aspect of our Polish lives. I cannot help but sense the same cancelling outcome here - the word artificial has the same consequence. Obviously, I am not a big fan of the thing, and I am sure many will disagree with my opinion. So let's not allocate any more energy towards it - instead, let's look again at Rick Rubin's work.
He is a record producer who won eight Grammy Awards, including 2007 and 2012 Album of the Year with the Dixie Chicks and Adele. Of course, reading The Creative Act is an experience on its own, and I know I will return to it repeatedly, but there are a few pretty good podcasts expanding on the themes contained in the pages. One is Rubin's conversation with Malcolm Gladwell, the author of five New York Times bestsellers, presented by Broken Record. Another one is a ninety minutes conversation with Rich Roll.
Sometimes I feel that my posts do not directly contribute to the business, specifically Ibbaka Talio, the skill and talent management platform. However, the incredible lessons and nuggets of universal wisdom in The Creative Act apply to any project - B2B SaaS, a piece of creative writing, a business proposal or coming up with an idea for a family dinner. I intend to bring the skills of intuition, listening, imagination, creativity and curiosity that fill the pages of Rubin's book to the forefront of design, my design - at this point, an aspiration I will aim at.
