232/365 - sandcastles...
365 - The 2010 Edition * August 20, 2010
I am an industrial designer, and the type of work I do requires a mountain of paper. Equipment brochures and technical data sheets - schedules and project planning - and especially, field notes. Field notes are the sketches that we create when we go to the project site, and take dimensions and notes that we use to create the working drawings that are the bones of any project.
Styles and talents used to draw these sketches vary greatly between designers, but the job is based on them, and I take pride in making my sketches clear and complete. Field notes are the last part of the job I do that allows the style of the experienced designer to show, and I believe that a few extra seconds to do a good job pays off by making the notes easier to work with throughout the project. The problem with taking pride in your work comes when the project is over, and it's time to clean house.
It's a little like making sand castles.. You work hard to make sure every little detail is there - turrets and moats and towers - knowing that it won't last forever. Sketches are like that.. Suddenly the sketches that you've so carefully drawn and worked from for months are no longer needed. The Company has paid you thousands of dollars to draw these little pictures with all the lines and numbers and details.. You've used them to complete tens of thousands to even millions of dollars worth of work.. And now they are useless...
Unfortunately, unlike sand castles, field notes don't go away on their own. You can't walk away from them, knowing the tide will wipe away your work like you can with sandcastles.. With field notes - you have to throw them away.. Tossing them away is like kicking down your own sandcastle, and I hate doing it..
232/365 - sandcastles...
365 - The 2010 Edition * August 20, 2010
I am an industrial designer, and the type of work I do requires a mountain of paper. Equipment brochures and technical data sheets - schedules and project planning - and especially, field notes. Field notes are the sketches that we create when we go to the project site, and take dimensions and notes that we use to create the working drawings that are the bones of any project.
Styles and talents used to draw these sketches vary greatly between designers, but the job is based on them, and I take pride in making my sketches clear and complete. Field notes are the last part of the job I do that allows the style of the experienced designer to show, and I believe that a few extra seconds to do a good job pays off by making the notes easier to work with throughout the project. The problem with taking pride in your work comes when the project is over, and it's time to clean house.
It's a little like making sand castles.. You work hard to make sure every little detail is there - turrets and moats and towers - knowing that it won't last forever. Sketches are like that.. Suddenly the sketches that you've so carefully drawn and worked from for months are no longer needed. The Company has paid you thousands of dollars to draw these little pictures with all the lines and numbers and details.. You've used them to complete tens of thousands to even millions of dollars worth of work.. And now they are useless...
Unfortunately, unlike sand castles, field notes don't go away on their own. You can't walk away from them, knowing the tide will wipe away your work like you can with sandcastles.. With field notes - you have to throw them away.. Tossing them away is like kicking down your own sandcastle, and I hate doing it..