Go Make Things…

There’s a reason I end the videos on my YouTube channel with the phrase, “Go make things." It’s the best parting advice I can give any creative person. I’m not encouraging aimless making though, make things with intention. And, it’s best if you make things through your own, weird, idiosyncratic lens.

Eames, Thoreau, Shackleton, Achatz, Kubrick, Jarmusch, Rams, Ferris, Godin, and Hetfield are just a few of my personal heroes. I've studied them closely. I’ve sought out their influences and sampled their work. I’ve eaten as they would have and labored to solve problems with their intellect. I've poached their esthetics and beats, spoken their slang and listened to their stories. I've lifted their words and matched their gait. And, like my heroes before me, I forged these influences into my own proprietary blend of traits and tricks, skills and SOPs. I cherrypicked the things I admired most from each and used them to cobble together a code; an operating system of my own making.

In my practice, I began by supplementing architectural design with writing and then photography. I discovered I could use my camera as a tool to make my work better and more interesting. I began making videos and studied filmmaking and there I found this complex fabric woven from the threads of all the things I loved: writing and storytelling, architecture, camera work, framing, composition, lighting, color grading, setting, sound design, and music. I realized that I could be all the things my heroes were: a chef transforming a pantry full of ingredients into a meal, a musician hammering notes into a song, a director, a designer, an actor; the foley guy and stunt man too. With a pen in my hand I was a screenwriter, and with Final Cut at my fingers, an editor. I didn't need permission, I just needed to make things.

An architect still, yet so much more.

So, I would ask, Who are your influences? Who coded your O/S?

It's your turn to go make things!

Here’s a short curated list of tools, tips, + techniques to help you get started: