Homemade Skills

Everyone is talking about change. About a different work environment, about a brave new world, about constantly learning new skills. About learning to learn and about learning fast.

We have always been personally curious; and as designers, even more so. To answer the questions aroused by our curiosity, we are constantly learning, practicing, and developing our tenacity for solving mysteries.

Many people confuse traits with skills, proficiencies and capabilities. We are all born with certain traits, a given that’s hard to deny, but much of our success at work and in life is related to skills we develop, and not always the talents we were born with.

Skills are the expertise needed to carry out a specific task. That is, if we have a trait or talent with which we were born and we develop it, then it will work for us. If we do not have a native ability, but we train and practice enough – Malcolm Gladwell says at least 10,000 hours – then we can develop the necessary skills.

Creativity, problem-solving, learning, and much of what we want to share with you here are skills. They are capabilities that will help you grow and flourish. They can be learned. Yes, you have to make an effort. It takes determination, but it is possible.

Developing our individual skills and abilities has become a part of who we are; and of those with whom we work, because a love of learning is contagious. We say this based on decades of experience, during which curiosity and learning, practice and persistence have taken us to amazing new worlds. 

It is precisely for that reason that we decided to devote special attention to the issue. Through projects we designed, from different periods and sectors, we’d like to show you how abilities can be expressed in the visual language of design.

So, what skill do you feel like learning?