I approached the world of design quite casually. I was about 12-13 years old when, one day, I decided to try Adobe XD on my father's computer. I don't know exactly how it happened, but from that moment on, design became a hobby. When I was then allowed to use social media, I started to discover and follow many pages that posted prototypes and application concepts.
What I know today I have learnt mainly through practice. I never delved too deeply into the theoretical part, always preferring doing to learning from books. However, a few months ago, when I was trying to get into a major design school, I came up against a harsh reality: the amount of theory required was immense and difficult to recover in just one month of preparation with the help of a simple textbook.
The theory I had to study was not only about art history, but also ‘design history’. The textbook covered everything from the birth of design during the first industrial revolution to the present day, endlessly listing works and designers to memorise, often without any visual support.
Among the few pages I managed to read, I discovered the names and faces behind objects that until then I had looked at superficially. I realised how crucial it is to know at least the basics of art and the early designers and architects to enrich one's designs and creativity. It is not possible to know every designer in the world, but it is important to know who created the ‘designer’ figure itself.
During my search, I did not find a website as I had imagined. However, I did discover some sites that sold really well-curated books, authentic works of art to keep in the studio.
It is from that need that Creative Minds Archive was born: an archive to share content-rich books and help anyone build a culture in this beautiful and vast world of design.