Debbie Millman has an ongoing project at PRINT titled “What Matters.” This is an effort to understand the interior life of artists, designers, and creative thinkers. This facet of the project is a request of each invited respondent to answer ten identical questions and submit a nonprofessional photograph.
Craig Dobie, with an extensive background in branding, has co-founded Applied Design, led high profile projects like the National September 11 Memorial & Museum identity, received a Gold Cannes Lion, and taught at Parsons School of Design.
What is the thing you like doing most in the world?
Making things with my hands. There’s a real sense of accomplishment when you make something by hand. One winter I was obsessed with making neckties. I loved the process of taking apart different ties to figure out how they are made, creating my own template, and sewing variations using different methods and fabrics. I learned a lot in the process, improving my skill and refining the design each time. The first tie took me about 12 hours to complete while the last took less than an hour from start to finish. I have so many that I haven’t bought a tie since.
What is the first memory you have of being creative?
My earliest creative memory is helping my grandfather paint landscapes when I was around five years old. Painting was a quiet world that he built for himself as a retired policeman in Scotland. He would invite me into his world to paint details like the leaves of the trees in the foreground of his scenes. To this day, I can still remember how wonderful it felt being part of something so important to him. At a young age he taught me that drawing and painting is about really looking at something and then expressing what you find interesting about it.
What is your biggest regret?
It isn’t really a regret, but I do wonder what kind of person I would be if I hadn’t moved to New York from Scotland twenty five years ago. I still feel a very strong connection to Scotland and go back regularly but what would life be like if I had not left? I miss many things about Scotland, but especially the creativity and brutal honesty of the Scottish sense of humour. Making fun of each other, as a show of affection, is something the Scots excel at.
How have you gotten over heartbreak?
It is such a cliche but time really is the only effective remedy. I find running around a park and hiking in the woods help as a distraction while the real healer, time, does its work.
What makes you cry?
I don’t cry, I’m Scottish! Just kidding, I’m a baller.
The movie Tony Takitani by Jun Ichikawa, based on the short story of the same name by Haruki Murakami gets me every time. As well as being a deeply moving story of emotional solitude, it has a wonderful and haunting soundtrack by Ryuichi Sakamoto.
How long does the pride and joy of accomplishing something last for you?
I’ve learned to keep adding on to the feeling of accomplishment with the next win, rather than let it fade each time. I’ve also learned to take joy in not knowing where the creative process will lead. Trusting that it will lead somewhere interesting, because it very reliably does.
Do you believe in an afterlife, and if so, what does that look like to you?
No. I don’t believe there is anything else after this. I think that our experience doesn’t continue on after we die but our influence can. Just as my grandfather’s creative way of seeing the world lives on in me.
What do you hate most about yourself?
Nothing. While there is a seemingly unending number of things that I am not good at and mistakes that I make. They are simply things that I didn’t do very well. I truly believe that it is important to forgive yourself as easily as you forgive others. It takes some practice, but luckily I screw up often enough to get all the practice I need.
What do you love most about yourself?
While I am good at not hating myself, I’ve still got some way to go on learning to love myself. Perhaps that ties back to being a Scot and our disdain for anything even slightly resembling bragging.
What is your absolute favorite meal?
Ordering yakitori and a cold beer sitting at the counter of a busy neighborhood restaurant on a hot summer night while watching the chef grilling over the flaming hot charcoal.