"I dream of lost vocabularies that might express some of what we no longer can."
A brief-ish insight into my point of view.
Despite being someone who gets paid to help people verbalize their dream companies, life visions, and creative principles, it’s a seemingly impossible thing to do for oneself. Anyone who’s done their own branding or designed their own home can attest. The process itself is never linear but instead a somewhat meandering jaunt through thoughts and ideas, big and small, important and pointless, and best done by someone outside of your own brain, able to see the forest for the trees.
That being said, taking the time to think through and communicate deeply considered ideas at the core of a body of work or company is literally the most important aspect of creating beautiful things that last (in my humble opinion of course.) It creates richer work in and of itself, and builds a scaffolding to grow on. And it sends an invitation to connect.
So many of the creative humans I learn about have had a practice of sketching, writing, and otherwise formalizing their ideas. Ilse Crawford said, “I write to understand my thoughts.” Agnes Martin hand-wrote her lectures, Louis Kahn constantly explored ideas in his sketchbooks, Donald Judd had a critical writing practice. (All of which I’ll get to soon!) But outside of educational environments, it’s not something we’re expected, encouraged, or even given space to do, especially in the context of our work.
Building work with this depth of connectivity is central to my strategy practice, and I hope sharing my stories behind it encourages you to connect with your own point of view and brings you a bit closer into my little creative world.
At it’s center, it’s a poem.
I first read Jack Gilbert’s work back in 2003, as a poetry major. What an insanely beautiful sentiment:
I dream of lost vocabularies that might express some of what I no longer can.
The line has stayed with me, and the phrase ‘Lost Vocabularies’ centers me when I say it out loud. Pretty perfect material for a newsletter name, and the conceptual guide for my strategy practice.
The act of creative expression.
I’ve written about it before, but I find few things more delightful than the act of creativity or experiencing other people and ideas through their creations. When I feel inspired or tired of working, I thumb through photos from a museum visit or pick up an artists’ book and am immediately transported back to the point of it all—why I do what I do. This became a statement that I call my ‘Motivation.’
M O T I V A T I O N
I do this work for the beauty of collective creative expression.
As I explored my ideas around design, creativity, and consciousness itself, there were recurring themes of ineffable beauty, growth, collective creation, and a relationship with nature. I surfaced a series of declarative statements that feel deeply true, but of course, nothing is as simple as it seems—I’m constantly questioning what I hold to be ‘true’. Crafting a manifesto or belief statements felt off.
So instead, I shaped a series of Proposals, supported by Prompts & Inquiries, designed as a practice of sorts. A framework to hold my ideas, so I can dig in more deeply over time and hopefully elicit conversations and creative expressions of my own.
I envision these coming to life as a sketch book or series of cards. Illustrations are already building in my mind. Creative play is also central to my work, somehow these proposals will speak to that.
And that’s that. Hours of going inward, sketching thoughts and ideas over coffee, writing, erasing, trashing, and refining, I have a collection of elements that through the act of developing has so clearly defined why I do this work and the essence of how I do it. These are ideas I will build on over time, incorporate into consulting and workshops, and use as guideposts when working through projects.
But most importantly, they’re ideas I connect with deeply, and if any of it resonates with you, or even sounds like a load of hooey, by all means, I’d love to talk.
— Christie
