Museu del Disseny: four museums in one where you see the genealogy of your craft

What is the Barcelona Design Museum and where does it come from?

The Design Museum opened in 2014 in the Disseny Hub Barcelona — a brutalist building by MBM Arquitectes (the same as Hospital del Mar) that locals know as 'the car-stapler' because of its shape. The museum brings together four public collections that were previously dispersed: decorative arts, ceramics, textiles and fashion, and graphic design. More than four thousand objects spread over four floors. The graphic design plant of the 20th century is probably the most underrated — it includes original works by Toni Miserachs, Mariscal, Yves Zimmermann, América Sánchez and many other pioneers of Catalan design.

Why go — and what's the purpose of your appointment with the artist?

If you work on something visual — illustration, branding, photography, product, marketing, web — the Design Museum is where you see the genealogy of your craft. Four thousand objects designed by real people with real problems: how to sell oranges, how to design a chair, how to communicate a political campaign, how to create a theater identity. What you learn here you won't learn in five years of online courses.

How to take advantage of it (concrete practice)

Go up to the floor of 20th century graphic design and look for posters by Toni Miserachs, Mariscal and Yves Zimmermann. Write down the three compositional devices that are stolen from you — the composition, the color palette, the use of typography. You'll come home with concrete ideas to use tomorrow. This is probably the appointment with the artist with the highest operational ROI in Barcelona if you work on something visual.

Why this place connects with Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way

The practice of the appointment with the artist that Julia Cameron prescribes in The Artist's Path has a principle: creativity needs to be fed before I can produce. Cameron calls it 'filling the well.' The metaphor is exact: if it doesn't rain, the well runs dry. If you don't expose your brain to non-work stimuli once a week, your ability to generate new ideas quietly declines, week by week.

Museu del Disseny de Barcelona is an ideal place for a date with the artist because it meets the three conditions that Cameron asks for: It takes you out of your routine (a place other than your work and home), does not require production (you are going to receive, not create), and exposes you to curated stimuli (someone with judgment decided this was worth watching). Three conditions, an hour or two, once a week. It is probably the practice with the best mental ROI that you are going to add to your routine.

If you haven't taken the course yet, this is the place to start. Your Artist's Path is the free 12-week program that applies Julia Cameron's method to your life — including two hours a week blocked off on your calendar for appointments like this. More about the course at the end of the post.