As a designer, you're taught to "trust the process".

This is essentially admitting that, in a professional context, you will have to surrender to the notion that 50% or more of the project is 'unknown' at the start. Safe to say, Clients may not always find this uncertainly easy to sign up (and pay up) for at the start, but from my experience, and having read all manner of Biographies from Sagmeister to Jongerius, or Hadid to Fadell, the reflections converge around putting oneself in a state of 'creative free-fall' is exhilarating and challenges you in a way that walking familiar ground never can.

This was one such project for The National Archives UK, which started off with a pretty 'linear' notion of creating a modern take on a century old design of a ventilating hat. Adding some solar powered fans was frankly a 'no-brainer', but it got the project going, but I had to hope something more remarkable would come of 'trusting the process'...

What transpired was a fascinating journey of technical and philosophical exploration:

- Learning how to create cyanotypes from scratch (and then making them extra unique).

- Delving into the historic significance of Top Hats, Class, Fashion, Social Constructs, and more...

- Seemingly out of left-field, realising this Hat was now a provocation about Online Safety for kids (you'll have to read it), and this was more remarkable than the initial idea of the ventilation solution.

Where I ended up was far more nuanced and inventive than where I started, and sometimes it's a real joy having a 'side project' like this, run for a few months, over a few weekends and evenings, alongside my 'heavyweight' work in engineering, design and strategy. Often the delta between the two ends up enriching both, in completely unpredictable ways. I realise in hindsight this informed key points about how I now use AI on commercial projects, which I would not have done, had I not been in 'free-fall' / 'play-mode' with this project.

It is apt that this is about the Spirit of Invention, as 'spirit' is perhaps the most accurate word. It's something hard to define, but you know it when you feel it happening in your work: Something takes over, and you 'surrender yourself to the process', as David Byrne claimed in his excellent book "How Music Works", which I was listening in my workshop much of this month.


What have been some of your most exciting pieces of work - my guess is that something came out of the process, out of left-field - and the skill was that you didn't ignore it, but trusted your gut/process, and allowed it to be realised...?

Thanks for sharing any unusual turns or thoughts in comments or DM. I always love hearing what helped, inspired, or too people to new places.


Why I made it: (link)
Interview about the Hat and my journey to being an Inventor: (link)
Exhibition: Open Until 29 October (link)
DIY Guide, and long-read on my thoughts about education and how better to foster creative problem solving: (link)

Huge thanks to Ruth Amos for curating the exhibition and commissioning the project. It was huge fun with all involved at National Archives. ❤️

Recommended:

"Teaching As a Subversive Activity: A No-Holds-Barred Assault on Outdated Teaching Methods", by Neil Postman.

How Music Works, by David Byrne.

TEDx - Jude Pullen