How I rediscovered myself through a personal design project [»Be Water my Friend«]

ARTICLE

EVERY ENDING IS A NEW BEGINNING

After seven years, I left an agency I had co-founded and managed, setting out on a new path to advance my personal and professional development.

However, I soon realized that founding a new studio and launching a new website were not enough to establish the new self-concept I wanted, one that would allow me to shed my old identity as an agency owner. Since I strongly identified with my work, I decided to start a personal project alongside the first new client assignments. I wanted to create a creative playground where I could fully express myself.

While I could describe the steps leading to my new project, I’ll take a shortcut here and move straight to describing the project. The core idea was: »Choose a statement that you want to repeatedly re-design as a poster graphic.« Statement: »Be Water my Friend.«

This quote from pop culture [»Lost Interview« with Bruce Lee, 1971], referencing the philosophy of Daoism [Laozi], resonated with me on many levels. One of these levels was the desire to train working in a flow state, as described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book.

So, I began designing the quote »Be Water my Friend« and its initials »B.W.M.F.« in various typographic and illustrative designs in DIN format and black and white. I consciously tried to integrate the concept of flow into my work. I created an environment with minimal distractions to work more focused and set specific times for completing the posters. This approach challenged my creativity and allowed me to delve deeper into my working process.

Over time, the number of my works grew, leading me to organize my first solo exhibition and to be featured by 100for10, where I released a 100-page »Be Water my Friend« edition. Another highlight of the early BWMF years was being invited by the software manufacturer Adobe to record three video sessions demonstrating how I create a »Be Water my Friend« poster live.

A challenge was to create a unique design with each new poster. However, when I met designer Cihan Tamti and we began exchanging ideas regularly, it felt like some of his creative spark rubbed off on me. My perspective on my design process changed and I began to give my designs more freedom. This increased the quality of my work and the positive reception on social media. This led to further »Be Water my Friend« projects, including collaborations with the nonprofit organization Viva con Agua St. Pauli and the publisher Slanted Publishers, where I released my second book.

The large poster adventure is currently on hold after my second solo exhibition, but I am now continuing my BWMF creative journey with the interview series »Roundtable,« where I explore the creativity of others.

Yes, the project indeed helped me to detach from my past as an agency owner and find a new identity as a designer. It took years, but it worked out. Isn’t it wonderful when things come together?

LINKS

. »Be Water my Friend« Book
. »Be Water my Friend« Workshops

CREDITS

. Studio Shoot: Joern Blohm
. Shoot KGB Exhibition: Jann Averwerser
. Shoot Kunstlabor KGB Exhibition: Leonhard Nima