Compel, Propel, Impel
The craft of ideas
Another way to think about design, is the process of bringing ideas to life.
Ideas are disembodied mental outlines. Ideas are thrown into life which holds the embodied concepts, filling the physical space they’re destined for. Square pegs in square holes. Though before ideas can be brought to life, they must first find their way to us.
We must have the idea.
Ideas belong to the infinite. Having them is an interactive confrontation with this eternal source material. Mark Twain said:
“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.”
The direction we turn this kaleidoscope is the craft of ideas. So let’s get our hands dirty.
Compel - Dispel
To compel an idea, we bring it together with something else. We combine it through mixing, infusing or knotting. Sugar and egg whites, a phone and a TV, pleasure and pain. Its opposite is to dispel, to break one thing apart. Lion and tiger, rind and juice, north and south.
Propel - Repel
To propel an idea, we give it energy and push it down its path. Fireworks become an atom bomb, conservatism becomes the alt-right, like becomes love. Or we repel it, wind it back, limit it. Painting into print, ideology into law, knife into vegetable peeler.
Impel - Expel
The most challenging axis with which to craft ideas is this one. To impel an idea, we must coax it out from the aether. We must reach for its partially hidden form, through hard-fought, gifted or accidental inspiration. Gravity, the solar system, evolution. Something ‘clicks’. Alternatively, we expel—the most difficult manoeuvre. The known back into the unknown. Examples cannot exist. It is forgotten. True death.