For years I went through school-life thinking that I was educationally inferior to many of my friends. I was a painfully slow reader. Maths was a complete mystery to me and generally, I was happiest doing practical things. I excelled at art and spent much of my time daydreaming – I hasten to add that we are talking the 1950s here; a period when the term ‘dyslexia’ was unheard of, and teachers would single out people like me as ‘thick’. In recent decades the condition was quickly identified and there is now a lot of help and strategies in place to help overcome the problem. If it is indeed a problem...
Working in this creative world of ours, I have discovered an amazing concentration of dyslexics. So many of the designers I have written about or interviewed are who they are, precisely because of their 'gift' of dyslexia. And it would seem that we are all the better for it. These days, dyslexics are described as ‘Creative Thinkers’. And we even have a list of likely strengths and weaknesses...
Strengths: Persistent, concentrated, perceptive, vivid imagination, creative, drive and ambition, curiosity, think in pictures instead of words, superior reasoning, capable of seeing things differently from others, love of complexity, quickly mastering the new, aware of everything, able to do multiple things at the same time, capable of intense short-term focus, quick decision-maker, highly intuitive, learns best by hands-on, rather than lecture or reading, realise that you are different from others, able to create a complete mental picture from pieces and always active-constantly thinking.
Weaknesses: Easily distracted, seek stimulation, immature social behaviour, says what comes to mind, difficulty remembering names, seek immediate gratification, impulsive and impatient, suffer from motion sickness, bored by ordinary tasks, inattentive, sense of underachievement, reverse letters and numbers, slow reader when young, difficulty with mathematical concepts, problems mastering phonics and spelling, problems understanding the rules of grammar, somewhat disorganized, capable of changing on a moment's notice. Have phobias: fear of the dark, heights, speaking in public. Prefer unstructured situations with freedom.
I found both lists very familiar in my own daily life.
I have always written but never felt I could share it with anyone because of my appalling spelling and grammatical faux pas. But I have thank Lynda Relph Knight, editor of Design Week, who in 1987 encouraged me to write for the magazine. I have been doing so ever since and in the process, it has so opened up a whole new passion for me (thank you, Lynda). I still have trouble of course — and as regular readers of this blog will know I have committed some real howlers to print. But I now have someone to cast her eyes over my musings to make sure that I am not making a fool of myself. But often in my impatience, rather than wait for her, I'll go ahead and end up with silly mistakes. If I occasionally do this, please forgive me.
So if any of the above strikes a chord welcome to our club. You're in good company. Here are some pictures (I know you prefer them) of some right-brained comrades…
Leonardo da Vinci / Genius