Make to Know: From Spaces of Uncertainty to Creative Discovery

A journey through the minds of some of the most creative people on the planet reveals that creativity is rarely a “lightbulb moment” and instead arrives through a process of making and self-understanding.

The creative process is winding. It involves entertaining uncertainty and improvising new paths to knowing. In this insightful and informed book, Lorne M. Buchman, an international leader in art and design education and president of ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, guides readers through stories of a diverse and talented group of artists, entrepreneurs, innovators, and designers. Including such luminaries as Yves Béhar, Chris Kraus, Zack Snyder, Paula Scher, and Frank Gehry and businesses like Apple and Tesla who have changed the world as we know it, Buchman focuses on the revelatory nature of the creative journey itself.

Michelangelo is said to have seen the angel in the stone and carved away until he set him free. Make to Know is about making as a path to knowing―presenting creativity as a “carving away” toward a revelation, not as a fully formed epiphany gleaned from a mysterious ether. As Buchman reveals throughout this provocative book, uncertainty is the space where discovery happens and where creators can be both playful and imaginative. Whether you’re an artist, designer, writer, daydreamer, or doodler, anyone can learn from these lessons on the varied paths to self-expression.

38 illustrations

Lorne M. Buchman is president of ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California. Previously, Buchman served as president of Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center. He also served as provost and president of California College of the Arts, where he spearheaded the creation of its renowned San Francisco campus in 1994. He is the author of Still in Movement: Shakespeare on Screen.