Rock The Boat: Learning to Live in Layers
The 2017 CallisonRTKL Design Conference took place September 11-13 in Seattle. “Ascend” was the theme of this year’s event, which brought together 15 up-and-coming designers from each of the firm’s global offices for three days of professional development, team-building and design inspiration. This post is the first installment in a series of reflections from some of this year’s attendees on their experiences.
When packing for September in Seattle, I wasn’t quite sure what to bring. A raincoat? A parka? A light sweater? All we’d been told was that in Seattle, we’d need layers.
I arrived in Seattle prepared to meet a group of people I had never met in a city I knew little about. They herded us from the hotel to our first activity, a boat ride. And is there any better way to get to know someone than on a boat…in the middle of a lake…gazing at the gorgeous Seattle skyline with a glass of wine in one hand and finger food in the other? I think not.
But still, I wasn’t sure I’d brought the right things. Would my long sleeves be enough against the winds off the shore? Layers, the reiterated, layers.
What I guess I didn’t realize until I began meeting my fellow attendees on that boat was that we’d all unconsciously brought the most important layers of all—our values, our knowledge and, of course, ourselves.
We started at a dock at the edge of the Seattle skyline, and at that moment, all you could see were the outlines of the skyscrapers beyond. Looking around, everyone was a new face, full of life and experiences that were so unique to each attendee. At that time, I was just Ashley, a designer from D.C.; Seattle was just a city in Washington. It was interesting to see how everyone began to open up along the course of the trip.
The more we delved into the first activity, the more we began to peel back the layers of one another’s lives. I met other interior designers, sure, but I also met the Seattle office’s resident sketch artist and a group of runners from around the world.
The people around me seemed to be changing through our conversations, as did the cityscape passing alongside us. As the boat slowly got further from the city, we could begin to see the intricacies of the Seattle skyline: mountains, lakes, freeways, evergreens, houseboats, the Space Needle. Simultaneously, everyone began to reveal the layers of themselves: what city they were from, what they did, where they grew up, what they were excited about for the week. It was the foundation for discussion and openness for the rest of the week, and I truly believe it aided in our ability to form connections with each other so quickly—and to understand how we, as a global company can come together to celebrate our differences and revel in our surprising similarities.
We were thrown into a group of unknowns at the Design Conference, just as we are with each of our new clients. What meets the eye is not always the truth, so through conversation, experiences, careful attentiveness and questioning, we can really begin to form a foundation of trust that flourishes into meaningful and useful information that can direct us to make the best decisions for our clients. ‘
At the beginning of the trip I was just Ashley a designer from D.C., and Seattle was just a city; now I am Ashley, a designer in D.C. with a passion for seeing the world, meeting new people and designing spaces that people enjoy being in and Seattle is a city, full of character and liveliness from the barista at every corner to Mt. Rainer off in the distance.
CallisonRTKL
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