The Riled One

This week, for my blog post, for the dual sake of convenience and novelty, I decided to follow the prompt: Discuss your personal career choice and motivation.


I’m now confronted by the stone-cold fact that I have not yet made a career choice, exactly. Was I supposed to? When was that assignment due? I consulted the authority of an English language reference to check my stats:
      ca·reer
      [kuh-reer]
      –noun
          1. An occupation or profession, esp. one requiring special training, followed as one's lifework.
          2. A person's progress or general course of action through life or through a phase of life, as                        some profession or undertaking.
          3. Success in a profession, occupation, etc.
          4. A course, esp. a swift one.
          5. Speed, esp. full speed.
          6. Archaic. A charge at full speed.


“An occupation or profession”… seeing how I’m still in training I may have chosen a career but the relationship is as of today, unrequited. “Progress or general course of action”… OK. I think I’m on to something. I am progressing as a critic and researcher. Progression has been achieved with the execution of my designs; the designs aren’t good per se, but progressing none-the-less. As a career choice, Design Manager seems vague. “Entrepreneur in Design” sounds like someone with authority issues and no direction. Which wouldn’t be exactly untrue, but it’s not quite the whole story. But perhaps, less is more.


I’ll elect to simplify things and refer to myself, my career choice, course of action, lifework and occupation with the words: Design or Designer. Isn’t that just elegant?


But what will I design? Where? For whom? In the immortal words of the mortal Marlon Brando in The Wild One: “Whadda ya got?”


My motivation is to change the world around me for the better, aesthetically and ethically, without the mocking affectation of morality. Give people what they want, without depriving them of what they need or who they are. Design not for the masses but design for the masses to look to and feel inspired.


I am continually inspired by artists of all sorts who have excelled despite and to spite adversity. I’ve got a lot of spite and I’d like to do something constructive with it, especially if that means deconstructing norms, mores and expectations. In conclusion, with some more Brando, “I’m gonna take this joint apart and you’re not gonna know what hit you.”