Mustn’t Design On A Full Stomach


There is the saying that one shouldn’t design on a full stomach. That is of course just a figure of speech, saying that a designer should be hungry for new stuff, hungry for change, unsatisfied with what there is already.


We believe that is only partly true. Yes, you might find yourself looking for something very specific and end up not finding it and that’s usually a good motivation to hit the drawing board. Or you find something so bad that you feel urged to make it better. On the other hand we think this is a kind of negative motivation. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but in a way it is like driving a race and just looking in the rear view mirror.


Of course, you will win the race by making sure you’re ahead of everyone, keeping them in your rear view mirror. But in reality, you are more likely to arrive in first place by looking forward with the eyes focussing on the finish line. In other words, rather than hungry the designer should have a healthy appetite.


More pragmatically, we do agree that a designer should not design on a full stomach. If you ever came back to your desk after a good lunch and try to concentrate on your computer screen you know why. But equally a designer should not have to work on an empty stomach either, because a rumbling belly is incredibly distracting!

So here are a few suggestions from our latest trip to Florianopolis: If you ever go there (which we recommend) you must not miss the local specialty, called ‘Sequencia De Camarão’ (lots of prawns done in various ways) and sample to local oysters (either straight or smoked or gratinated). You also find that they do a very nice Moqueca there (a coconut based seafood stew) which is actually more typical for the Northeast of Brazil and have a Casquinha De Siri (also Northeastern). Last but not least we did enjoy a new fashion that is already popular in the US and which works very well with Brazilian food: The food trucks. Usually you will find a few of them together (called a Food Truck Part) giving you a nice variety of rather yummy stuff. Last but not least we discovered that ‘Cerveja Artisanal’ is becoming very popular. That’s beer done in little breweries with quality ingredients (and lots of love) and without all the bad stuff that the big companies put into it. Shockingly, the wheat beer is really as good as the bavarian original!