Commitment, Craft, and Coffee: What Drives Creative People to Make Great Stuff
The event featured a topic that every type of creative professional can relate to. Design by Barbara Cadorna.
What drives creative people to display a maniacal commitment in the pursuit of their ideas, dreams, and, ultimately, creative excellence?
That was the big question we explored on Wednesday night during our creative salon at Ammunition Group HQ in San Francisco.
The evening featured a conversation between Ammunition founder Robert Brunner and Terre Kaffe founder Sahand Dilmaghani, moderated by Creative Factor editor Matt McCue.
The event at Ammunition HQ in San Francisco was a full house.
Brunner — one of the best industrial designers working today whose greatest hits include the Beats By Dre headphones, the Square Stand, and instant cameras for Polaroid — opened the discussion by articulating the difference between good and great design work.
Good design is usable, desirable, and attainable, and that takes tools, talent, and process. Whereas great design is transformative, empowering, and culturally relevant. And that also takes tools, talents, and process, but it needs something more. “The people who make something great are just going to do whatever it takes to bring something out in the world,” he said.
That “maniacal commitment” is something Dilmaghani has displayed while building his company that recently released its latest product, the TK-02. The machine was designed by Ammunition and allows you to make café-level drinks at home. When employees join the Terre Kaffe team, Dilmaghani tells them that they don’t necessarily have to be passionate about coffee — or even drink coffee — but they can’t operate on auto pilot. “You have to be engaged, interested, and have genuine curiosity,” he said. Why? “Because we care about every little detail."
Both acknowledged that compromise is also part of the process.
Today, Brunner can identify what is great by “feel” because he has worked on lots of stuff during his career and made hundreds of compromises. “Many designers, especially early in their career, believe compromise is something you don't do,” he said. “But developing a product is a constant series of managing compromises.”
What becomes important, he noted, is understanding the boundary conditions about what makes the product great. You have to know what you need to fight for. And maybe that is all any creative professional really wants? To identify what is important to them, their customers, and their community, and do everything they can to make it happen.
The event was Creative Factor’s first West Coast salon, which it co-hosted with Ammunition. These gatherings of designers, storytellers, entrepreneurs, architects, and artists offer the chance to discuss the biggest issues creative professionals face today. Those in attendance included creative leaders from Apple, Google, Meta, Gensler, Stanford, and more. Many guests have launched and run their own companies.
Like any good party, the evening kept rolling well after the feature conversation ended. There was a maker excitement in the air. On the way out, one attendee messaged another, “Good to meet you tonight. Let’s chat more about making sh*t.” Indeed.
Ammunition puts entrepreneurs in close contact with its team of designers with expertise in physical and digital product design, service design, and more.
Terre Kaffe is reimagining how people can drink coffee in their homes and workspaces. They bring the coffee shop to your countertop.
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