The challenge of having a defined identity in the design industry today.

For a long time, to me, design was the strongest way of organizing the world. To design meant a way of emulating Nature, a mechanism of shaping reality. However, in the past years, I began noticing how Design was falling into the capitalist system of commodities (producing an endless and absurd ecosystem of objects with an ephemeral life) and losing its essence due to a proliferation of trends, tools, software, and so on. The categorical imperative of environmentalism tells us that we need an environmental responsibility towards our natural surroundings, but why not also implement a creative responsibility, in order to preserve visual health or the natural human creativity, or end the planned obsolescence of our objects?

Today, the biggest issue in the Design field is being able to build timeless and solid forms, including our own identity. In a world where identities are being liquified and annihilated, to create solid ones that can last over time is a challenge. As paradoxically as it sounds, History can be a great inspiration for innovation. To know where we are and where we aim to go, we need to know where we come from. We live in a world were everything has its new, updated, and latest version, which makes it very hard to find timeless forms. Trends are allies of Capitalism, they keep the system alive in an infinite cycle of changes and economical return.

As creatives, the portfolio is our design identity: it visually represents our essence. It is our opportunity to exist in the field and communicate our essence, purpose, and skills. To build a coherent portfolio, we have to think of ourselves holistically. Why do we choose a specific brand? Because they have correctly and effectively communicated their essence. A conceptual formula for our identity construction should include: (Purpose + Essence) + (Strategy + Positioning) + (Form + Communication).

A system is the organization of different elements that work together for a purpose. Each part has its own identity and characteristics but always respond to the mother concept of the portfolio/brand. The portfolio is the visual expression of the concept, both in the designs shown and the whole portfolio design itself. The portfolio itself is a problem of design and the way we solve it evidences our design philosophy: how we think, how we design, how we organize.

Here are 10 rules that I developed throughout the past years which helped me build a solid portfolio system in a constantly changing field:

1. Define your essence: with 3–5 words or one sentence, who you are and how you want to be perceived.

2. Be focused: communicate expertise and clarity, but without losing the sense of totality.

3. Be passionate: create better quality work as you will with mastery and dedication.

4. Be serviceable: think of your work as individual art with a social function.

5. Be responsible: design objects that can last, avoid trendy and obsolete design.

6. Be conscious: think of the legacy that your work can leave, have a wider perspective of what you do.

7. Be systematic and organized: build a coherent and organized body of work.

8. Invent projects (if necessary): show your best, which is a reflection of your mastery and purpose.

9. Show quality, not quantity: don’t add artificial length and unnecessary material to the projects.

10. Do outstanding design: attraction is not a choice, the first impression determines most of decisions.

As designers, we bring new shapes into the world: we have the power, the energy, and the weapons to origin existence from our inner space. We create the metamorphosis of concepts into material reality and, also, give them identity: we make them exist.

I like thinking of design as a practice that organizes a certain portion of reality, whereas it emulates the creativity in Nature and cures any visual disease with Aesthetics. Design is, in fact, a natural activity, not an artificial discipline — and organization is part of our essence.

The Universe is an immense design system, and we are the designed product of the Universe: we were designed (by a Design) to design.