Designer Disruptors

EXPERIENTIAL | PRINT | PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Organizing and promoting a viewing of Design Disruptors at the iconic Atlanta landmark, The Plaza Theatre, was one of the more gratifying events of my career. This film had inspired me and it was truly rewarding to present this film to a local audience of my peers and to enhance the agency’s local presence in Atlanta. Collaborating with the InVision representatives to make it happen, negotiating venue details and developing promotional pieces (more on the fish later) was a labor of love.

The Fish

As a designer, inspiration comes in all shapes and forms. And this case is no different. Design Disruptors is filled with more quotable moments than could fit on a page and be purposeful, but there was one particular story that stuck with me.

THE PIKE AND THE MINNOW

If you drop a minnow into an aquarium with a pike in it, the minnow will be devoured as the pike immediately recognizes the food source.

But if you put those minnows in a glass bottle and lower the bottle into the water, the pike can’t see the glass, and will try to eat the minnows without success until at some point it concludes, “I guess minnows aren’t things that I can eat”. And when you remove the glass jar, the minnows are able swim freely around the pike.

And that’s how markets operate—we just get used to stuff even though there’s so much potential swimming around us. And it take’s a special kind of designer to push against the “stuff" to make it better.