HOW TO WORK BETTER…

Twelve years ago, I stumbled upon Peter Fischli and David Weiss’ How to Work Better while researching an utterly unrelated art history essay. Something about how the creative process could distill down into such simple actions struck a chord, and I immediately snapped a picture of it. When I got back home later that night-being a cheap college student-I made my version on a piece of cardboard with a sharpie. 

10+ years later, I still have that piece of cardboard hanging in my office, and it’s been visible workplace/studio I have had since.

As we begin our CMCI Studio journey, I wanted to explore a selection of these so-called studio mantras or commandments, as they serve as a baseline on how to approach creative challenges. Sometimes what we need to begin isn’t a first step or plan, but a practice or mindset from which to approach the problem.

How To Work Better  

Peter Fischli and David Weiss’ iconic work was derived from a list they encountered at a ceramics studio in Thailand. Originally the work was installed near a train line in Zurich in 1991, but more recently-and iconically-was painted on Houston Street (NYC) in conjunction with their Guggenheim exhibition in 2016. 

Ten Bullets

Tom Sachs Ten Bulles/”Working to Code” “is a movie series designed as members of the Tom Sachs studio team. Required viewing for all employees and studio visitors.”

This list is more quirky than the first and speaks to Sachs’ studio process and the expectations of his team. While not universal, many are quite useful in setting the tone for how work should be conducted. 

The final bullet is maybe the most haunting yet strangely motivating.

“Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” –

Ray Kroc. The founder of McDonald’s.

Advice for Students

Charles and Ray Eames were some of the foremost designers of the 20th century. Straddling the line between design and architecture, and producing iconic designs such as the Eames Chair and Case Study House #8. 

“In addition to all of the ‘good goods’ that they produced, the Eameses were prolific as educators, making many important contributions to the world of ideas.
Underlying all of their work is the principle that design should not be an act of creative self-expression but rather a process of problem solving.”

Daniel Ostroff, Editor of “An Eames Anthology: Articles, Film Scripts, Interviews, Letters, Notes, and Speeches”

As their careers blossomed, they became more and more interested in the field of design education. Preparing for a talk at UCLA in 1949, Charles Eames, jotted down the below notes as “Advice to Students”

At first glance, these may seem radically different than the prior two lists, but keep in mind that these are for learning to design better, not being a better designer. 

I see a lot of crossover in Sachs’ first bullet and Eames’ statement “The art is not something you apply to your work[.] The art is the way you do your work, a result of your attitude toward it”.

Both of these statements are in a way anti-creativity which seems counterintuitive. However, as designers, it is our job to solve the problem as simply and elegantly as we can. Sometimes, that might mean forgoing any artifice, decoration, or personal style if it means a better end product. If we can’t justify why and the existing solution wouldn’t work, then why reinvent it? Or as Eames puts it: 

“Creative inventiveness I would put quite low on my list of ambitions for the student. I would be more than happy if he only ended up being able to distinguish the prime or basic objectives of a problem from the superficial or apparent objectives. If he knows the real objective and a few possible landmarks, then inventiveness will take care of itself, and he need never hear the word ‘creativity.'”

Charles Eames

HAWRAF Recommends

I wanted to end with this list because it is both much more playful and contradictory. HAWRAF was a four-person design studio started by Google Creative Lab alum, and focus on interactive design across digital and physical spaces. Their studio was radically transparent, sharing documents such as Should We Do this Project, A Flow Chart centered around the big question, “Is it Something We Believe in?” The studio parted ways in 2018 but shared most of their google drive of internal documents and process as a final parting gift (check it out here). 

As part of an interview with The Creative Independent, HAWRAF but together a much longer list. Within it, we find all sorts of contradictions, deeper rabbit holes to dive into, and many ideas that reference the previous three list. 

HAWRAF Recommends:

1. Share more.
2. Try different mediums.
3. Keep moving.
4. Make better sandwiches.
5. Drink water.
6. Don’t only hang around with people who do what you do.
7. Take breaks.
8. Say your ideas out loud.
9. Nothing happens over night. Unless you work the night shift.
10. Diversify your inputs.
11. Go against the grain.
12. Think about why you do what you do.
13. Everything changes.
14. Be open to change.
15. Make it interactive.
16. Eat a good breakfast.
17. Go offline.
18. Volunteer.
19. Stay home.
20. Go out.
21. Advice is a form of nostalgia.
22. Work with people you like.
23. Think before you give advice.
24. Be original.
25. Sleep 7.63 hours a night.
26. Listen to rap.
27. Question “lists” that offer quick solutions.
28. Leave space.
29. Digital isn’t the only interactive medium.
30. Look at things from an inverse perspective from time to time.
31. There’s a thousand ways to do it.
32. Eat humble pie.
33. Do the things you’re not good at.
34. Listen.
35. Go a whole day without being the first person to talk.
36. Make a film.
37. Exercise.
38. Support the kids.
39. Be good weird.
40. Don’t let people tell you what matters.
41. Most things can be learned.
42. Listen.
43. Donate your time, money.
44. Ask lots of questions.
45. Learn the rules. Then break them.
46. Wear sunscreen.
47. Make mistakes with other people’s money. (Work for someone else.)
48. Treat design like a conversation.
49. Is this helpful?
50. Trust your gut.
51. Eat a good lunch.
52. Hire people of craft.
53. Make to learn.
54. Give credit where credit is due.
55. Mentor others.
56. Treat mistakes as learning experiences.
57. Listen.
58. Read books.
59. What’s your plan?
60. What are you doing right now that helps further your plan?
61. Make things that make people feel less stupid.
62. Make the most of things.
63. Culture is always recording whether you choose to participate or not.
64. Wax poetic about computation.
65. They aren’t always right.
66. You aren’t always right.
67. Design for inclusivity.
68. Converge. Diverge.
69. Look at art.
70. Connect the dots.
71. Vote.
72. Stand for something.
73. You have at least one strength that no one else has.
74. Don’t.
75. Do.
76. Rinse and repeat.
77. Cover your mouth when you cough.
78. Draw the fucking owl.
79. Help when you can.
80. Eat a good dinner.
81. Iterate.
82. Take stock of what you have.
83. Moss naturally grows facing north.
84. Disregard this list.
85. Take care of yourself.
86. Throw it against the wall. See if it sticks.
87. Cut twice.
88. Hold the door open for someone.
89. Wake up really early every once in a while.
90. Resist.
91. Don’t rest on your laurels.
92. Go to the batting cages to blow off steam.
93. Don’t stand on swivel chairs.
94. Listen.
95. Navigate the unknown.
96. Just because it exists doesn’t mean it should.
97. Sometimes eat dessert.
98. Work hard.
99. Hardly work.
100. Keep an open mind.
101. Die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.