On November 20th, I participated in the inaugural Rotman Business Design Initiative event by the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. The theme was Decoding Design for Innovation. The session I was involved in was moderated by Clay Chandler, (Executive Editor, Asia Fortune Magazine), and the legendary designer Bruce Mau and the wonderful Angele Beausoleil (Profesor of Business Design and Innovation at the Rotman School of Management).
Read MoreAre you worried about losing your integrity as a creative in the corporate world? Designer and artist John S. Couch has launched a new book that might help.
In The Art of Creative Rebellion: How to Champion Creativity, Change Culture and Save Your Soul, he shares 28 straightforward principles he's identified to help you build confidence and live a creatively fulfilling life at the office.
John knows firsthand how tough it is to keep the creative juices flowing when faced with societal pressures to conform and bills to pay. With a career that has taken him from Wired magazine and CBS to Hulu, where he is currently vice president of Product Design, John is undoubtedly successful. Yet, as a young designer, he encountered his fair share of setbacks and periods of disillusionment – difficult experiences that a guiding hand may have helped him avoid or overcome more easily.
You can pre-order a copy of The Art of Creative Rebellion. In the meantime, we asked John if he could share a few tips with Creative Boom, so you can learn how to survive the corporate world without losing your soul.
Read MoreAfter speaking on a panel in 2018 about the creative courage, vision, and raw determination it takes for designers to “break the internet,” John S. Couch, VP of Product Design at Hulu, had numerous designers, entrepreneurs, and businesspeople ask him if he could recommend any books that would help them navigate the unforgiving environments of contemporary design without compromising themselves. He didn’t, but on his wife’s recommendation, he ended up writing one himself. Part-Letters to a Young Poet, part-Kitchen Confidential, Couch’s The Art of Creative Rebellion: How to champion creativity, change culture and save your soul (in bookstores January 21, 2020) serves up anecdotes of lurching your way forward in a career through screw ups and blunders to ultimately finding the lesson in the wonderful mess of life. A necessary read for everyone from beginning designers to experienced corporate executives, Couch’s book delves into what it takes to successfully create something for people at scale.
To celebrate the book’s release, here is an excerpt from the first chapter:
Read MoreI drive my daughter to school every morning. It’s convenient as her school is less than half a mile from work. It’s one of the highlights of my day – spending time with her as we drive down winding mountain roads and go south on Pacific Coast Highway. During these times we either listen to music or we discuss what’s going on in school. The other day, as we drove home from school (Friday afternoons I pick her up), we didn’t listen to music but we discussed the Saugus High School shooting in Santa Clarita that happened on November 14th. My daughter is 16 years old and the victims, and the shooter, were all around that age. It struck close to home, to say the least. She told me, “Daddy you have no idea what it’s like to have to worry that some kid could just come in with a gun and start to shoot kids in the school. I shouldn’t have to worry about this.”
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