The article is a little late again today. This time, because I'd spent the whole weekend hurtling down the side of a mountain on a mountain bike. As I am want to do. By the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, I wasn't in any mood to sit down and pen some thoughts. So I'm sitting down this morning instead.

Travelling with a mate over the weekend is a great way to reflect on life. Lots of time in the car, over breakfast/lunch/dinner, and obviously shooting the breeze out on the trails. By telling someone else about what's going on in your life, it's a great way to take stock and put your place in the world into perspective.

There's no doubt the design industry has slowed down at the moment. While the medtech industry is generally somewhat insulated from the usual carry-on of the broader economic climate, I think the reluctance for companies to invest into product development at the moment has finally permeated into medical devices. Certainly for Industrial Design, though I would expect some engineering disciplines are less impacted.

For me that means more capacity to build Titan Medical.

Up until now it's been a juggling act to spend time building out our product portfolio at Titan, while continuing to work with startups building awesome medical devices under my own banner. Of course, my Industrial Design work is still the priority, but with some more breathing room it's been exciting to invest more time into Titan's future.

I've written before about the guilt I've felt transitioning away from the 9-5 8-6 grind to something that better suits my clients and my lifestyle. After 20 years of the same routine, it's been a challenge (one I've not fully escaped) to stop beating myself up for arriving at "work" late or leaving early. Or taking time out of the middle of the day for whatever reason (quick bike ride?). Even though creativity doesn't care about your work hours, and I often find myself up at 10pm or 6am capturing some idea or adding the finishing touches to some model.

Similarly, this weekend I was reflecting on how I also felt a guilt for investing the time into Titan instead of pursuing paid design work. Bigger than the pressure to join the daily grind is a societal pressure to be earning. Of course, this is no trivial thing. The cost of living in Australia is objectively insane and many people must earn simply to put a roof over their head and feed their family. For most people it's not an obligation, it's necessary. As a designosaur with half a career under my belt however, my situation is much less critical which means there's a bit more room in the budget to invest my time for the longer term.

Yet, the guilt remains. Either because everyone else must earn so I should too, or because, like my work hours, I've worked so hard my whole career the force of habit is difficult to shake. I also wonder if there's ego attached to having big or numerous projects on the books. Industrial Designers are nothing if not egotistical, and it's entirely likely that the need to be flat out with work has less to do with putting food on the table and more to do with looking good.

Titan Medical is doing some exciting things. There's no question that the time and money being poured into it now will pay off in the long run. Yet when what you're doing now you won't see the effects of for years to come, it's hard to maintain the mental and emotional link between the inputs now and the outputs much (relatively) further in the future.

Of course getting over the guilt of investing into some future objective rather than an immediate concern is only part of the equation. To be able to build something by choice, you must have sufficient financial runway to do so. And naturally, you must know what you want to build and why.

There's a reason why so many agencies are currently rebranding. When the market slows and you have excess capacity, you don't just sit around and wait for things to change (especially when you have salaried designers to pay). You invest. You build things, including brands and relationships, that will pay off in the longer run. When I first started Virtimachi and had little work to get on with, I spent a lot of time putting together the systems that made my life much easier when things inevitably became hectic. Templates and processes that in retrospect I don't know how I had the time to build, but infinitely glad I did.

If you know what you want to build, now seems like a good time to build it.

PS. I'll be at the Hunter Nexus gala dinner at UoN Callaghan this Wednesday. If you're there, come and say hello.