We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tristan Hess a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Tristan , so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
When it comes to creativity, I think less about keeping it alive and instead about exposure. By exposing yourself to new ideas you find the most creativity. Things like traveling, reading, or trying something new will give me the most exposure and by proxy, keep my creativity flowing. With the influx of new experiences being both good and bad, it allows me to feel the most creative. I believe that everything connects to each other, and by combining them as well as thinking in a creative manner it paves a way to figuring it all out. The connections of experience and thought are the equation that I use to create something interesting.
One of my favorite Architects is Bjarke Ingles. He talks about architecture almost like an alchemy, where you combine different ideas together in unconventional ways. He talks about how the wilder these ideas get, the more interesting the outcome. One of his many unconventional ideas he and his company came up with was the combination of a ski hill and a power plant designed in Copenhagen. It sounds crazy but it works. It’s ideas like this, where you have the realization that everything does connect. The trick however, is to show people the connections and communicate them in a cohesive way.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
My name is Tristan Hess, I am a designer and educator. Originally, I am from Boise, Idaho. I attended Northern Arizona University, (NAU) for my undergrad where I studied interior design. After my time at NAU I had planned on doing a masters program for architecture instead, I switched to a Masters of Education, focused on art and design at Plymouth State University. Following that, I relocated to Colorado to start my education career about two years ago. Currently, I am a design teacher at an independent school. I really liked the idea of working in a design shop and teaching students about design. In addition to teaching, I also design flat pack furniture as a side project, called Shelfage. I started working on Shelfage while I was in grad school however, the idea goes back a few years before that. I feel that shelfage is an ongoing project in my life and hope to see it grow more in the next few years.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I’m not sure if I am the person to answer this because I still feel that I am at an early stage in my journey. I do not have all the answers figured out, but these are some of things that have helped me on my journey. The first thing I would say is, to be curious, be curious about everything and investigate that curiosity in whatever it is.
The second thing is to ask for help. You’ll never know everything, no matter the experience, education, or age that you are. If you do not understand something ask for help. It doesn’t make you dumb, it makes you curious.
The third thing is to love what you are doing. Become obsessed over it, nerd out over it, and talk about it. I love design and I love designing, I don’t feel I am particularly amazing at it but I enjoy it. Even when I hate it, I love it!
I will add a fourth item here, which is to be kind to people. You never know what someone is going through in their day and it never hurts to add positivity into someone’s life.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
I think improving on your strengths while recognizing the areas that you aren’t strong in is something that will always be valuable. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t try to improve on your weaknesses, because I think there’s value in taking initiative to become better in certain areas. I think it was the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard who said, “I only strive to be 80% good at something, anything above 80% is becoming obsessive”. I like to think about that idea when I am working on improving in an area. It feels more manageable to me when I tell myself, I don’t have to be the best, I just have to be 80% good in a certain area. I am a firm believer in the idea of a renaissance team. What I mean by that is, by working with people who are experts in their areas it can add a lot of value to you as an individual as well as a team. You don’t have to be the best in every area because that’s impossible. Instead, strive to have the ability to work with people who are talented in a number of different areas. This is something that can help you and a team grow in an area that you are weaker in. It is important to remember that your weakness could be someone else’s strength or visa versa. Like I said before, creativity is about exposure and by exposing yourself to other ideas and skills your creativity is kept alive.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @shelfage
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tristan-hess-33b137b1/
