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Chloe Scheffe

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At the end of February, I was called out as generalist on Twitter. The accusation—it could only be that—made my face flush. As soon as the notification hit my phone, I searched the thread’s backlog for the initial question that had prompted some designer, a complete stranger, to implicate me. It

I really enjoyed this short essay from Chloe Scheffe on being a design generalist:

Generalism, I now realize, is in my nature. I’m a generalist not because I think I’m good at everything, but because I think I’m very good at nothing. For now I’m unsatisfied by all that I make (dissatisfaction is inherent to my particular strain of generalism; it is its primary torture). I ask myself, constantly, forever and ever, What is the thing I love to do most? and What am I best at? and What am I? I respond by working in every arena I possibly can. I investigate. How can I know if I do not attempt?

All the power of generalism—and it does have power—is in what its everything-ness implies. That is: To be a persistent generalist is actually to be deeply, relentlessly ambitious. It is the natural byproduct of curiosity, of engagement, of unwavering standards, of the insatiable desire for excellence. Commitment to generalism belies a keen and willing mind. Generalism is a pursuit of self. It’s how we strive. Driving us is the hope-borne belief that we will eventually design ourselves into the thing we will be.

This, obviously, resonated with me. While I'm not sure my undergraduate education ever explicitedly pushed specificity over generalism, there was a sense that generalists were harder to pitch. I've always tried to pitch myself as a generalist, both because as Chloe writes, I've never felt I was especially great at anything, but also out of a fear of boxing myself in — into a specific way of working, a certain style, a particular vertical. I crave that flexibly. This has become increasingly hard as I've sought to brand my studio, again resisting the urge to define a specific area but realizing how it'd make branding my work much, much easier.

I'm reminded of this idea of the 'art monster', which I talked about in my recent interview with Peter Mendeslund. Coined by Jenny Offill, in her book, Dept. of Speculation, the art monster just has an innate desire to create something that wasn't there before, unconstrained by medium or discpline or genre. Increasingly, I've found this definition to be the ultimate goal.

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