an incomplete guide to essential creativity

1. Happiness is paramount: Check in daily to make sure that we are in the moment, and that the moment we are in makes us smile. If it doesn't, evaluate; get out the sextant; look up at the stars; don't be afraid to change course, no matter how large the ship has become.

2. Do what we want to do: Never take on a project that doesn't feel right inside; intuitive thinking goes so un-noticed in our world today, yet humans can learn well from the other animals and operate in this realm of feeling|meets|thinking, using intuition as yet another lens or layer, to aid in the process of drawing beautiful experiences to us, and steering ourselves toward happiness.

3. Travel to distant lands, and our back yards: Share and gather shared information from other cultures that inspires essential design; seek out the unusual, the simple and elegant; look behind neighbor's fences; crawl under chassis and into tunnels underground; climb trees and mountains; explore the great unknown, either across the globe or by looking anew at the back of your hand.

4. Write, paint, write, sculpt, write, collage, write, re-write, write, body paint, write, free yourself, write, draw, write & create in any way that you can; hone these beautiful instruments of our souls, these electric connections; say the things that no-one else dares to say, that no-one else can say; say it clumsily, say it with grace, just say it and do it! Just get it out.

5. Build Models: the kid in us fell in love with building forms and the space between surfaces through models, out of paper and cardboard; clay and mud and sticks and dirt; Find that childlike joy and explore all the nooks and crannies of our imaginations through miniaturized expansive thinking. When we shrink these 3 dimensional forms, we are able to think on a global [universal] scale; become gods and goddesses, and then cast yourselves into the abyss.

6. Embrace the extra-necessary: Sometimes the unnecessary is what is essential. Our society has [d]evolved into its own version of what is needed and what is not for survival; the concept of the essential involves the Soul - this transcends the necessary and touches the extra-necessary realm of mythic and the apocryphal; feed the soul with those things that bring smiles to our lips; laughter to our throats and bellies; create our own meaning.

7. Design More: architecture does not exist in a vacuum; design roads, skyways, the next wheel; design garden beds & roofs that absorb water instead of shedding it; design sunglasses and shoes; design places for our shit; design pots and pans, clothing and furniture; design systems and networks; design new ways of thinking.

8. Invest Everything: leave nothing behind and give everything to the smallest project.

9. Tell the Truth: There might seem to be a time when the truth is inappropriate. Stop. Just say what is true. It will always be appreciated. It might take years for that to be true.

10.  Design with Authenticity: Enjoy those moments where we might be designing around a table, or an idea, or a love.

11. Pattern Making through Process