A good f***ing design advice poster that was at Johny Ive’s Apple Office — a hard reminder to the product designers.
A solid problem makes designers go crazy, and it should. If not, either it’s not a problem at all, or the designer is not at full potential. I was casually reading the Kindle book ‘After Steve : How Apple became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul’ on the badly designed heavy-weight iPhone 12 Pro Max cursing Tim Cook . In Chapter 7, the author discusses Johny Ive and Apple’s minimalistic office space and objects. He found a print that read,
“Believe in your fucking self. Stay up all fucking night. Work outside your fucking habits. Know when to fucking speak up. Fucking collaborate. Don’t fucking procrastinate. Get over your fucking self. Keep fucking learning. Form follows fucking function. A computer is a Lite-Brite for bad fucking ideas. Find fucking inspiration everywhere. Fucking network. Educate your fucking client. Trust your fucking gut. Ask for fucking help. Make it fucking sustainable. Question fucking everything. Have a fucking concept. Learn to take some fucking criticism. Make me fucking care. Use spell check. Do your fucking research. Sketch more fucking ideas. The problem contains the fucking solution. Think about all the fucking possibilities”
It was a famous GFDA’s ‘A good fucking design advice poster’. It refreshed my memory. I really wanted to print this when I found this, but then I got lost thinking about fucking possibilities and the fine art of procrastination.
The attitude matters. I can relate this to my design life. All my life, from freelancer to now, I have tried to keep up the attitude. It’s tough. Keep trying is the key.
And, if you are a young designer or somebody who wants to move ahead in your career, please take this advice seriously. Please don’t be just a follower, be a leader, work hard and take charge. Work outside your fucking habits.
Happy creating! And if you are curious about the book, you can find it in the below link.
