“If you can look into the seeds of time
And say which grain will grow and
which will not,
Speak then to me.”
― Macbeth, 1:3

We must learn to look. Developing visual literacy skills unlocks a means of understanding and engaging with the world that cannot be replaced by any text. By moving beyond defining things in terms of their utility, we are able access the lessons our images have to teach. A reverence for history doesn’t mean enshrining things where they stop being dynamic. Images are used as temporary hangers or hooks; memory is a river.

A number of voices question designers’ lack of awareness of design's contribution to the shaping of the global world beyond the designed artefact itself. As Mike Monteiro states, “The world is working exactly as designed. And it's not working very well. Which means we need to do a better job of designing it”. Design is not only what we make. Design is what we make possible for others.

Jazz musician Thelonious Monk wrote out twenty-five tips for musicians — a paradigm of his musical legacy — and this was one of them. How do we work from a place of what’s familiar and relevant to our lives, histories and things we want to protect?

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”
― E.F. Schumacher

In looking beyond the surface, we inversely end up looking directly at (the surface). A beautiful synergy can happen when things in an elegant and complex system become more than the sum of their parts. Every language is an old growth forest of the mind, a watershed of thought, an entire ecosystem of spiritual possibilities.