Lone Ranger I am Not

Since I moved to Sydney, I have experienced a state of mind that most designers who become freelancers or decide to go at it on their own as an entrepreneur would. This state of mind is the loss of interaction with other designers. This loss of bubbling creativity commonly found in a design studio environment, or in other words the loss of the ability to bounce ideas back and forth that makes doing design solo so difficult. So much so that many designers who are unaware of this cannot understand why their work suffers.

It is really amazing as you will never appreciate it when you have it, but when you don’t, you really do feel its loss. I’m not sure about you dear reader, but all of my best award winning design work was developed or conceptualized in such interactive environments, and the reason the designs won was in no small part due to the help of the talented people that worked around me.
Thus it is probably why, in my current state, I am craving interaction with as many people as possible. Its not that I am a social person, no its not that. But I suppose as a passionate designer I derive my greatest joy from collaborating with other equally passionate people.
Giving into withdrawal symptoms, I’ve actually spent the last 2 weeks formalizing an editorial team to help run my networking blog for Industrial Designers in Asia. Sorry its also the main reason why posting has been a little slow here at Design Sojourn.
Called IDAsia.org , this design blog network aims to link and gather the best multi-disciplinary Industrial Designer from Asia and beyond. I have been working hard and developing an awesome editorial team of great Asian based design bloggers who’s passion in design and blogging, I must say, puts even me to shame! But the subtleties of this experience is the ability to work with them, sharing their thoughts, exchanging ideas, and really becoming better designers or bloggers in general. So, if you are interested in the latest hard hitting design articles and design news from Asia and beyond please do not hesitate to visit all 5 of us at IDAsia.org.
Coming back to Design Sojourn, the take away from a collaborative work environment is we all become better at what we do. That being said, I have been, for a while, also looking for a writing partner or partners for Design Sojourn, some one that can help make DS into a design blog powerhouse of some of the best articles and strategies on how to do great design and create clever products. I think I may have found someone.
So I like to introduce you to my other partner in crime PY. PY, a serial design observer and writer, also is part of another design blog called Studio 469. She will contribute to Design Sojourn with articles on design management or designer improvement but from a slightly different perspective to me. I won’t say any more but will let her articles speak for her. So please do give her a warm welcome, and I hope you will continue to enjoy your DS experience in time to come.