Becoming a Journey Junkie

We’re a results driven culture.

Whatever the metric: prestige, wealth, popularity; we often measure success within the context of where we think the story ends, not the journey that got us there. Now, there’s nothing wrong with patting yourself on the back at the conclusion of a particularly grueling or momentous stretch of your brand’s journey, but there’s a lot more value to be had in treating these moments as journey checkpoints rather than final destinations.

Destinations are overrated. We’ve seen enough Fyre Festival documentaries to validate this. There will always be some scenically enticing spot drawing you to set up camp for an extended period of time, but it’s the idea nomads who keep wandering, exploring and learning that find ultimate fulfillment. I think I read that in a fortune cookie somewhere…

As we approach our 20th year of journeying here at Capsule, it’s hard not to think of all of the different successes and checkpoints along the way where we could have hung up our hats and said “This is it! The perfect spot. We’ll set up camp here”.

We easily could have pitched our tents on the terra firma of packaging, having innumerable success stories, including Patagonia, Hydro Flask and Yakima.

We could have sheltered in the microcosm of experience design, dreaming up new normals for clients like Caribou and Byerly’s.

We could have bivouacked in the strata of building visual identities, having done so for orchestras, construction companies, institutions of higher education and everything in between.

We could have stopped at any of these junctures and said we’d learned enough. But every time we celebrate a victory in a new arena, we don’t stick around for too long. Sure, we’ll come back to visit from time to time, but as soon as we experience success we climb right back into the Capsule and rocket towards uncharted space and new and unusual problems.

So what are you? A destination dweller or a journey junkie? Before you answer, let’s look at a few qualities held by those that call the unknown, home:

1: They’re comfortable being uncomfortable - Individuals that enjoy the journey understand the time honored mantra of “no pain, no gain” and that a place of growth is rarely synonymous with a place of comfort. Instead, they embrace the unknown and uncomfortable with enthusiasm.

2: Their favorite phrase is “…but I could be wrong” - Fear of being wrong does not hold them captive. To journey is to experiment. And in experiments, you’re often wrong many times over before you’re finally right. Dream, do, tweak then repeat.

3: Failure is a muscle to be exercised - I won’t bore you with all of the inspirational quotes by Einstein and Edison on how failure really isn’t failure. You get it. Fail. Fail a lot. Fail fast so you can fail forward.

4: Rest is not Idleness - They understand taking a break from the constant stream of thought and activity is beneficial to both their creativity and problem solving abilities. They take time to rest and experience what’s going on around them, without distraction, and draw fresh inspiration from their observations.

It took 20 years but Capsule has developed an impressive array of capabilities. From research to naming to brand identity to messaging to brand strategy to experiential design to packaging to structural design **INHALE** and any other project that falls between the cracks of a mundane descriptor, we continue to explore and evolve what it means to be creative problem solvers.

And we’re enjoying the journey.