Wax On, Wax Off: A Crash Course in Design and Life

Orientation Week has just wrapped up at AC4D, yet the nervous excitement in my stomach is thriving. This feeling is exactly what I’ve been looking for, but I didn’t expect to feel it so quickly. (More on this momentarily.)

Over the course of the past week, we’ve spent each day focusing on a different aspect of the design process:

The AC4D Design Process

As each day unfolded and we sampled just a small, yet dense taste of each step in the process, my mind kept rehearsing the infamous Wax On, Wax Off scene from the The Karate Kid:

Spoiler alert: Mr. Miyagi is secretly teaching Daniel how to fight, but Daniel doesn’t realize it yet.

Day 3 (Synthesis) involved the most mental gymnastics because we spent a majority of our time making the abstract concrete, finding themes in our research and creating insights from those themes. Not by coincidence, it was on this day when I had the aha moment: AC4D is playing the role of Mr. Miyagi, training me how to “fight” without me realizing it. 

“Fighting” in this case, though, means developing skills like navigating ambiguity, embracing change, and gaining empathy. Skills one needs not only in design, but in life. Wax on, wax off. 

So why have I been looking for the feeling of nervous excitement? Because it’s proof that I’m right where I should be. 

My goal in attending this program, among many goals, is to become a great designer. Obviously, that won’t happen overnight. The design process is an iterative, never ending journey. When prototyping and testing are complete, research starts all over again. (See above.)

Life, like the design process, is an iterative journey, and we often learn lessons without even realizing it. What I learned in Orientation Week is to enjoy the journey. Yes, I want to be a great designer, but what I want more is to simply allow AC4D to Miyagi me into becoming a better person through design. 

Wax on, wax off.