Do you like Rachmaninoff?

Why does it matter?

Yes, why does it matter? Why Rachmaninoff? I’m Marc Posch, a designer, not a musician or a composer. So what?

Here's a little secret about me: I love Sergei Rachmaninoff. I could listen to his music all day. It soothes me and puts me in the right flow, allowing me to work for hours on end.

Now, it shouldn't be surprising that what we like and enjoy is part of the fabric that creates us—that shapes our views of the world and how we respond, even how we work. Our personalities are formed by our experiences.

A designer, too, never works in a vacuum. We are always the product not just of our education but mostly of our ongoing encounters throughout life. This is how we grow.

I always find it paramount to search for inspiration where others have gone before us. Whether its visual artists, architects, or musicians. Otherwise, there would be no progress. If we don't connect with the past and learn from it, how can we create the future?

“The cross pollination of disciplines is fundamental to truly revolutionary advances in our culture.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson

Music students learn this all the way. You have to study Bach to understand the math behind composition and Mozart to appreciate the excitement and passion, the joy a music piece can bring to the world.

Picasso once said, "Good artists copy, great artists steal." It took me a long time to understand this. I guess what he meant was, if you copy something, you are still using someone else's ideas, maintaining a distance. But if you "steal" something, it becomes your possession, a part of you. It means you're going in full throttle and not just dabbling a bit with a style or a certain pattern that may look cool. Stealing here means digesting the piece fully and then working with it.

But back to Rachmaninoff. Did I get you interested in exploring his music? Give it a try. It may change something in you. Learning something new is part of how we grow, and not just as designers.

Thank you.

PS. Here’s a beautiful piece by Rachmaninoff. The Piano Concert #2 in C minor, performed by Yuja Wang