Last night I had a long back and forth live email thread going on with René. Many ideas about the course platform and the ways things fit together begun to glean on us, and we exchanged paragraph-sized ideas over the course of an hour or so.
We then continued the conversation this morning. I was deeply engaged with the conversation and the flow of ideas, but at a certain point I felt something strange: it is unnecessary to speak anymore, I understand the vision, the product, the direction, the meaning of what we are building here.
What is it that which we understand when things click in product design? It could be said that you understand the system, that you understand the syntax, but I think sometimes it goes beyond. I would call it spirit. The product does not possess the spirit, it was passed as a breath of life from the creator into the product.
I’m just noticing these things. There seems to be a different way of designing which comes from neither mind or heart, it comes from spirit. But because in modern times we’ve done away with the conception of spirit, very few people have stumbled upon it.
Some products are incarnation of spirit (spirit made matter). Most products are incarnation of ego (intention made matter).
I will keep on exploring this question.
Is Designing from Spirit the opposite of Design Thinking?
Are most worthy things incarnation of spirit?
Where is the sprit when we say a product is a spiritual successor to x product?
I said I wanted to explore the intersection between design and spirituality and it is proving very difficult to write about, but I shall do just one thing today: define Designing from the Spirit.
Designing from the spirit is breathing life into a product, and then giving care and attention so that the product may fulfill its potential.