I haven't posted many blogs recently because my mind has been far from the creative world. I have had a contractual job in the suited and booted world of finance for a few weeks. Meeting clients and brokering deals is a side of the world I don't often see, I also admit it's not a side I want to go back to that often either but it's interesting to observe. It helps me understand that without the trading side of the city the rest cannot revolve, it's a good perspective to see the working world from and something I can draw on, not only for skills but for the self reflection it gives me so i can see what I want to achieve. Although to switch between that world and my creative side is hard, at the end of the day I was so perplexed by the world I had been in all I wanted to do was switch off. So now I am back designing again and I thought I would search for others who are able to do more than one thing in their working day, who have more than one focus in their career and also have an ability to switch from one world to another whilst having an impact on both.
My investigations start with Leonardo da Vinci. One of the most influential artists of the past millennium but also a Botanist, Musician, Writer, Mathematician, Engineer and Anatomist, to name but a few. Mainly known to most of us for painting the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, but while we admire this work what you may not know is that he also conceptualised a helicopter before there was the technology to build one, he came up with an idea which later became solar power, he devised a calculator and outlined a theory of plate tectonics. It is perhaps what he was developing aside from the paintings that may have had most impact on us without us even realising. Without Leonardo da Vinci's ability to traverse these worlds imagine how much we may have lost out on.
Lewis Carroll, author of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' but also a Mathematician, Logician, Photographer and Anglican Deacon. We all grew-up knowing Alice in Wonderland, through Lewis Carroll's writings he created a magical world with a mad hatter, cheshire cat and magical cake which made you grow & shrink, he brought us an unusual world of fantasy which is enchanting. Yet this same man was also a talented mathematician who was educated at Oxford University and for most of his life held a Mathematical Lectureship at the college. He brought us fiction but also at the other end of the spectrum he was calculating theories based on fact.
My investigations brought me to modern day and I admit that I was slightly taken aback to learn that Brian May known to most as a musician from Queen is also an Astrophysicist. Famous for being lead guitarist with Queen and writing songs such as 'We Will Rock You' and 'Bohemian Rhapody' in the past decade he has also graduated from Imperial College London with his Ph.D in Astrophysics . He is co author of Bang!- The Complete History of the Universe with Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott. These worlds couldn't be further apart yet he found passion in both to be able to have an impact.
Trying to find inspiration from someone of similar age to me I came across Serena Williams who is a huge success on the tennis courts and recently won the Ladies Singles title at Wimbledon, as well as many other tournaments over recent years. So I amazed to learn that Serena not only focuses her time on tennis but also fashion design and acting. I am aware that her dominance on the tennis court has helped in opening up other avenues for her to work within but this was created through her hard work and dedication to the sport and so these opportunities are, I feel, just reward for so much commitment. To achieve so much within the tennis profession takes alot of determination and time on the practice courts, so what I find inspirational is that whilst doing this she still finds extra time to be involved in setting up her own clothing range Aneres and is actively involved in designing the clothes for the range. Additionally she has appeared in character on ER and Law & Order as she looks to further extend her career. She is similar to George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Jamie Oliver and others in the world of celebrity who are using their position to do so many other things, striving out into other businesses, fighting causes and and are now becoming known to us for more than what initially brought them to the medias attention in the first place.
I have named only a few people above, but those I have written about all have a similar trait which I find inspirational. They aren't happy with what falls in front of them but that they have a desire to strive out and achieve more. That they have an inquisitive nature to find out more and they realise that they don't have to limit themselves to being just one thing. They pushed the boundaries and if one doors shut they have already opened many more and continue to experience and grow from a variety of different influences and I hope to draw inspiration from this the next time I move away from the world of design.
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
No comments:
Post a Comment