The mornings
A year of life and death, crisis and success, happiness and sadness. Probably the most educational year of my life.
I had the honor of speaking at TEDx Athens this year. The invitation came at a delicate period. My country is in the worst crisis since the dictatorship of the late 60's or the civil war. The general mood is anything but positive. I have nothing to contribute to the negative images that you haven't already seen. But these images are only parts of the puzzle where some positive parts are missing too.
It is a little strange to talk about success stories and lessons of failure in an environment where unemployment and poverty are rising. In order to get a message across, the other person needs to be ready to listen. These days many people don't. I confess that some days I'm one of these people too. I just can't listen. But thank God I have people around me who offer some great advice and even if at times there comments contradict my ideas, there is always logic behind it.
And it was also strange to be congratulated the day Steve Jobs died. Some people saw my work presented in the big media and cheered me on... but some I think were blinded by the wrong light. Nevertheless, these contradictory feelings helped refocus some of my ideas.
So this was the year of contrasts...
But wait a minute! I'm a designer. I love contrasts. I've studied them since college and I learned to love them. I remember the words of Rudolf Arnheim that my beloved Theory of Color professor Augusto Garau once told us:
"Se non esistono parti separate non c'é nulla da congiungere"
(If there are no separate parts there is nothing to combine).
I have learned to love the tertiary colors because of this professor and this quote.
Within these tertiary colors, there is a dominant color but there is always a small quantity of another color. This gives it a different direction. Some people say that this dab of color is dirtying the mix, some others believe that it is precisely this mix that gives character to the color. I love the dynamics of these combinations. Not pure, not stable but ready to be part of a composition.
I want to see 2011 as different colors. All of them making sense in a composition that is still under development. And one other color in this composition was TEDx Athens. The subject for this year was the Art of Disruption. This is why I decided to share the story of the last 6 years of my life. I shared casual facts, underlying values and a little bit of my everyday philosophy of life. I mentioned how I realized some of the most important things in my life could be found. But also, how I am tested every morning when I'm faced with the question to whether or not I'm looking to my day ahead. This is the video of my speech:
I want to see 2011 as different colors. All of them making sense in a composition that is still under development. And one other color in this composition was TEDx Athens. The subject for this year was the Art of Disruption. This is why I decided to share the story of the last 6 years of my life. I shared casual facts, underlying values and a little bit of my everyday philosophy of life. I mentioned how I realized some of the most important things in my life could be found. But also, how I am tested every morning when I'm faced with the question to whether or not I'm looking to my day ahead. This is the video of my speech:
And this are my notes for the speech and the slides of my presentation:
TEDx was another contrast for me, another interesting color in the mix. Many thanks to the TEDx Athens team. I loved the colors that you added to my year.
Happy holidays, everyone. Good morning(s)!
