“The mind is like an umbrella. Its most useful when open.”
There is something poetic to the often-repeated story that the founder and builder of the Bauhaus, one of the most emblematic schools in the history of 20th century art, design and architecture could not actually draw. Whether sparked by this particular shortcoming or a grander desire to unify the arts, collaboration is a running theme in the life of Walter Gropius, an ideas man who did not always have the means to deliver. But, do you really have to draw to be a designer? The answer is not. I would say that maybe you will have a better chance to become a designer if you actually don’t know how to draw. I’m serious.
One of the most inspiring things in Gropius is his character: his decision, persistence and consistency. He was able to create a space for collaboration mixing millenary disciplines and those new ones brought by the industry. This is something that Steve Jobs understood well, not without being criticized because of course not! a programmer cannot be considered an artist. For me, a creative swimming between design, cinema, photography and music, Walter Gropius way of thinking it is not a whim, it is a necessary way to live.