Photography and writing for RGD's Design Thinkers annual conference for visual communicators
The Big Picture(s)
Two days, 57 sessions, 2,039 attendees, Immeasurable energy, Infinite insights.
As I sat in an auditorium filled with aspiring young designers and thinkers listening to industrial designer Ayse Birsel, I reflected upon my own journey as a young designer. What would I do differently? What do I know now that I wish I knew then? Was I able to, as her book has it, design a life I love?
In his talk, “Center of Attention,” Alex Center discussed what success looks like. To Center, success is measured not by how much we make or achieve, but by how brave we are to care for others. “Caring makes other people want to care,” he said. Michelle Dougherty talked about empathy. It took me a long time to understand what it means to have empathy, to empower rather than to “help” others. Tosh Hall challenged his audience to find their truths and Jessica Hische showed that life is just as important as work, if not more.
On day two I watched Michael Bierut sign his book How to… for excited young people. Eleven years ago, when I began thinking about photography as a career, Amy Vitale fulfilled this role for me; she was my hero. I loved being able to feel the stories in her pictures. I was drawn to the issues she cared about, but, most importantly, to the way she let people tell their own stories. This is the hardest thing for a photographer to do—to be the messenger for the people who let us into their lives. We are not there to take photos but to be given them. This is my purpose: to tell stories as honestly as possible. As creatives, isn’t that what we all strive for? It can sometimes be hard to get past a narrow definition of success, especially when starting out. DesignThinkers reminded me that it’s often more rewarding to measure success by what makes us happy and the connections we make with others along the way.
