It all begins when it ends…
has been my life.
Buckminster Fuller, who is credited with the quote above, has been an idols of Rodney’s for a while. Another influential quote of his is, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Rodney Allen Trice firmly believes that the human race sits in a very interesting place. We will either grow and evolve and take on the responsibilities the planet is requiring from us… or we won’t.
He is passionate that it is time to build that new model.
Rodney’s career in large scale media suddenly ended with the fall of one of the greatest American media outlets ever, Time Inc. This was the end of an era in publishing and for Rodney as his time directing media outlets also came to a close.
Rodney’s slogan, IT ALL BEGINS WHEN IT ENDS, was not originally stimulated by that collapse but it has come to reflect the transformation that has happened since then. It gave birth to probably the most profound and potentially influential work of his life. That slogan has become his personal version of Tyler Durden’s, “it’s only after you’ve lost everything that you are free to do anything.”
REFIT OR DIE itself, though birthed out of his furniture and lighting work quickly has come to reflect Rodney’s life and the world of communication design. It came about when it was time to merge the two separated design lives Rodney was living and finally become one single creative force.
One of those lives was that of a quirky industrial designer that made Time magazine’s green design 100 list and has received incredible press around the world.
The other life was that of a media professional serving at the top of teams as both art director and creative director on many projects. The collaborative efforts and the scale and reach of those media projects was exciting and thrilling to him and Rodney found himself drawn into that more deeply as the media options began to expand into entirely new formats creating entirely new opportunities. There were those who locked up and choked on the new formats, but Rodney was always excited about the future and wanted the helm more often as the formats grew in engagement.
Rodney always saw his first task as a creative director was to create a strong, healthy vision and then his second equally important job was to build and lead the right team. This allowed Rodney to explore so many more design options and formats than many of his peers especially when combined with his own furniture and lighting work which directly connected him into the arts and other unusual design opportunities. Rodney loved the most unusual teams the best. “There was something extra exciting knowing you built a team that might have never even existed before I assembled them. Then to watch the team beautifully tackle obstacles and challenges. Brilliant!”, said Rodney.
Rodney’s vision is obsessed with the future and the more he researches the gaping chasm between human beings beliefs right now, he can’t stop thinking about the urgency of using his skills to begin to help stimulate the conversations that need to be had within that abyss. This is where Rodney’s obsession and commitment will likely see him riding his horse off into the sunset.
Finally Rodney feels like he found where he belongs as a whole individual. Everything else just had to truly end completely before he could find his new way.