The path to becoming an inventor
Or how I tried to be an engineer and finally saw myself transformed into a designer
A few weeks ago, I celebrated my first anniversary working at 23. Since then, a lot of things have been really different in my life. I mean, it’s not just my first year here, but also the first time I live in one of the biggest cities in the world, and the first time I work from almost the beginning to create one of the most recognised design studios in Mexico, where I meet new people everyday, create stuff and make strategy — or the way my inner child likes to call it — being an inventor.
My personal definition of “inventor” has changed over time. As a child, I used to think there was some kind of professional career to become an inventor, you know, the ones that make fun stuff like robots and flying cars. When I grew up, I realised that people who build real things were actually engineers. But now, after trying many times, I’m not trying to become an engineer anymore. When it comes to design, I’m all in. It lets me invent things but on a whole different level. But why did I change my mind from becoming an engineer to pursuing a more idealistic, artistic career? Let’s go back to the beginning of the story… about 15 years ago.
Episode I: Hello World!
It all began with the blessed childhood my parents gave my sister and me. They always tried to give us the best education they could as a low-middle class family. They rapidly discovered my fascination for computers and how easily I was able to understand them. My parents always wanted to encourage me so they enrolled me in a computing course, even though just a few people in my town where interested on the topic.
And there I was, a 10 year old boy with some guys in their 20’s and 30’s, building computers and installing operating systems. As a child, I learned faster than them, but the important thing was that I realised that I was completely in love with technology and that I wanted to invent things related to it.
After some years of learning a lot on PCs, I touched the limit of the platform. I was in high school when the mobile platforms were trying (without great success) to fit into our lives. By 2006, one year before the iPhone appeared, I had a basic Sony Ericsson phone with Java as the main system platform (very different from the ones right now), and, as you might expect, I played a lot with it, adding functionalities to the phone but more importantly, playing with the visual stuff on the system: themes and images. Without knowing it, I was already designing a personalised experience on my personal device.
Episode II: When you just don’t fit in
By 2009, I was deciding my professional future with some personal confusing episodes and family money issues. I wasn’t clear on where to improve my skills, but because of those issues, my final decision was to study Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering at a new university near home, a small school with some (not very clear) ideas on how to be different. It was good at the beginning but after some months I entered into a rush of few empty years.
Discovering that I not only knew how things worked but also why they worked, better than anyone in the same building, even the professors — the ones that were trying to help us have a brilliant future — was a revelation. Everything around me felt boring, senseless, out of place. It took me time to understand that if I wanted to do something meaningful, I had to move on or else I would feel like a T-rex trying to reach food with its small arms. My first thought was that I needed better tools to continue learning and creating, so I dropped out of school.
My next target was Queretaro. I had heard nice things about the city, such as rumors of its developing tech industry. So I gave both the city and myself a new chance. This time, I tried something closer to my past experience: Software Engineering. I thought it would be a new beginning: new people, new mentors, and a real approach to the industry. But they said no. They told me I didn’t fit in. And I believed them so much that I didn’t even apply to another university. I was very scared, but after all the drama, I made a choice: try to get a job in the tech industry without a professional career. The remaining question was how to achieve this.
The first thing I needed was a portfolio, but a product portfolio meant that I needed to design a product. Trying to create something new would be very difficult without ideas, so I decided to redesign a product that already existed, built by someone that also lived in the same city. So I chose one product from his portfolio and started on it, learning the basics about design in the process.
After a month of work, the product was completely redesigned. I visited the guy in his own development agency, showed him the project and I must say, he was amazed but a little bit confused about my reasons. My lack of experience in the industry blocked me from getting the job in the end. That was my second big life failure in less than two months, but this time I got the message. I felt completely different, as if all the work I did really had a big impact on me. The solution wasn’t to get better tools: the tool was in me all the time. I didn’t get the job, but I did get a full understanding on how to design a digital product and the best part, I enjoyed every part of the process and I felt I could design anything in the world. That’s when I realised how the worst day of my life showed me to use my T-Rex mouth with big teeth instead of my little arms.
Episode III: Sprinting a design studio
Sometimes you have to make decisions just because you know it’s time. Months after the events in Queretaro, I moved to Merida, dedicated entirely to learning more about design, and working as a freelancer. Even if I knew that I wanted to be a designer, I decided to keep trying with engineering, thinking (foolishly) that I could do both things at the same time. I applied to a new university, and received approval this time. But then, one happy accident on Twitter changed my life completely.
Lulo, a guy that didn’t know me more than from just a few freelance jobs I had done for him, offered me to participate on his new project in Mexico City. He wanted Fabian Luna and me to be his team, helping others reach higher levels, with design as the main tool. I just needed to say yes, drop out of school again, leave my family, my entire life and everything I knew behind. That was the hard part, but the moment he offered the job, I decided without thinking. All I wanted was to become a real designer, a real inventor.
So I made the trip and after a few weeks I realised how every piece of the past fitted in my everyday work. The code, the logic, the deep understanding of computer systems, all those things I learned before, finally led me to design. But even more importantly, understanding that design is not just about moving pixels but about making top level decisions. All the things that didn’t make sense to me in the past were because I wasn’t designing at all, I was taking decisions on a small scale, not caring about the important stuff at the top level.
Now, over a year later, three failed attempts at engineering careers and more than twenty amazing projects later, I still feel like it’s only the beginning. Knowing how things work is just a small part of the whole view. I code sometimes just for fun and not to forget, but my main path is design, trying to reach the top levels of design strategy, and learning everyday from the best in the industry.
The rest of the story is in the writing right now. The path is long. Who knows where or how will end. All I know is that even when your brain has doubts, it’s very easy to follow your inner child’s dream, like me wanting to be an inventor, it lets you know when you are on the correct path.
