I would like to tell you that when I a kid I used to take apart products and see what's going on inside and bringing them back together and being super intrigued with what's inside like all those stories that designers tell or being told about them. While that may be partly true, I can really truly say that as a kid I just enjoyed dismantling things. I did it mostly for the sake of just breaking some things up but I also was very interested in what's behind that plastic or metallic box and why was it so important for that box to hide it from me - I NEEDED TO KNOW! I didn't take the effort of assembling it back though because after revealing that secret of that product's gut, I felt like I learned enough and tortured it enough.
My parents had no passion for design and we weren't educated to think about design as kids. If you visit my parents' living-room you will figure that out on your own with it's eclectic design style and over-flooded walls with artefacts and pictures. I guess it has to do with the fact that where we we're growing up, there wasn't any exposure to good design and the people were distracted by other matters like: make ends meet or thinking about how and when to leave the city (like me and my friends) or even just enjoying the simple life and not really thinking about these kind of things like design. I believe that somewhere in their minds- Design is something that only the privilege enjoy and think about, which is a frightening and sad realisation to believe in.
During my military service I always thought that I would go and study Architecture after the army. After I finished my service I did what most released men and women do after the army- save up some money and travel the world. So after i came back from south-east Asia I took a course that will prepare me for the application for Architecture studies. Since money don't grow on trees, I had to work during that time as well. While I was working as a security guard for a Siemens factory in Israel, I got to talk to some of the people working in the command center. Most of them were studying Industrial Design in Bezalel, Jerusalem. One of them, Dror Peleg, introduced me to the world of ID and what it means and recommended that I watch "Objectified" by Gary Hustwit. Dror's words and the movie really opened my eyes and I made the decision that I want to become an Industrial Designer!
After finishing the Prep-course I felt like I was ready enough to take on the Application and get me a seat in one of those Design schools in Israel. As you can imagine from a small country- there aren't many options (Shenkar in Ramat Gan, Bezalel in Jerusalem and HIT in Holon). So I tried them all. twice... but on both occasions I wasn't successful, in Shenkar I did manage to pass the first phase though (My stand from the application in the image on the right ->), but I failed in the class assignment. From here and there, after wasted two years of my life on that, I decided that I will study for a certificate in Sapir college, Sderot, in the south-west of Israel. A place which is famous for it's proximity to the Gaza strip and on many occasions being bombed at from Gaza by Hizballa militants or other terror organisations.
But for my time in Sapir and the rest of the road I'll tell in further on another time.
Until the next time - be safe and please take care of yourselves and others.
Much love,
Adi Gottlieb
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