During the break here at Portfolio Center, when I had just a little breathing room to relax and reflect on the busy spring quarter we just wrapped up, I gave a lot of thought to the progress the students are making. I was thinking about how challenging it was, working with the twenty (two groups) I had for Design History and how those students matched me, effort for effort, as we all rose to that challenge. I was impressed with their deliverables—the wine bottles, posters, chairs, and peace bridges, any one of which might have been a thesis project at another school. (And they had four other classes!)

As many of these students are well into the second year, beginning to see the proverbial light at the end, I wanted to share—a reiteration, really—some advice to keep in mind as they finish up their portfolios. So for those people, and anyone else (you grads out there) who might be thinking of shaking things up in your own lives, I offer the following:

Stretch yourself and your work more than you ever have before. It is important that your work be out there on the edge. Remember, the edge always defines. Think about a knife: only one side, the sharp edge, cuts; the other side is ineffective, good for spreading margarine maybe. To make a difference, your work has to be sharp as well. A good portfolio has a liberal bent, not a conservative one. Just being good will get in the way of being great.

One of my heroes, New England’s legendary creative director Stavros Cosmopoulis, imagines it this way: “Make the layouts rough and the ideas fancy!” Don’t think about creating a rectangular box or a little square book. Throw the paper away and let the IDEA be king.

Pour all of your intelligence and feelings into the work—your logic and passion—in order to draw others into a shared narrative. People want and need stories, and yours are important to your success in this industry. Your own ideas and stories can change the world in a positive way. The world needs your real ideas. Look at it this way: someone offers you a moment of their lives and you then own an opportunity to give them something of value in return. That’s power, my friends. Use it well.

Ask yourself—Am I being conventional or predictable? Am I playing on stereotypes and confirming worn-out behaviors? It is better to create experiments and act in the experiments you create. The great architect Louis Kahn noted, “All form comes from wonder.” And wonder is where your curiosity intersects with your passion. It is from wonder, then, that your experiments are born. When you ask yourselves the right questions, the deep questions, breaking through and beneath the superficial of cliché,’ your work will be WONDERful.

It’s enough to excite you or scare you to death—the meaning and importance of your work in your life. It has always been my mission to make sure that all Portfolio Center graduates go out into the world charged with putting your best selves into all that you do, with the objective of creating positive change and your own happiness. That’s why you come here—no? Because you can’t separate your art from your work from your lives. Because you want them all integrated. Because a nine-to-five with nothing special to show at the end of the day is not your idea of living.

From This: Class Antics…

To This: Critiques

Formidable Panel

Peace Bridge

Wine Bottles

Chair

Chair

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