The Roundup: Craft is great, but it isn't enough
Insights from recent Design Better interviews.
I built a career in design for a simple reason: I love to make things. There is a specific, quiet joy in the intersection of a big idea and meticulous craftsmanship. For a long time, I treated this path as a sort of professional loophole—a way to spend my life creating while remaining safely insulated from the “business” side of things. I thought if the work was good enough, I’d never have to worry about sales.
“I think it's the under-taught aspect of what it means to be a creative... if you can’t sell your ideas, you are nowhere.”
—Mikon van Gastel
But in a recent conversation, Mikon van Gastel effectively burst that bubble. As the co-founder of Sibling Rivalry, Mikon has spent decades proving that the “maker” and the “seller” aren’t two different people—they are two sides of the same creative coin.
Listen to our conversation with Mikon van Gastel
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The Cranbrook Firing Squad: Where Making Meets Defending
Mikon’s path to the Cranbrook Academy of Art was a pivot away from the rigid Swiss Modernism of his undergraduate years in Holland. Accepted into an environment with no formal classes and a pedagogical model inspired by the original Bauhaus, Mikon spent two intense years unlearning his previous training to rebuild his creative foundation from scratch.
