The Missing Brick: Celebrating Unfinished Works

In the traditional design world, we're taught to present only our most polished, finished works. Portfolio reviews, exhibitions, and job applications all demand perfection—clean lines, resolved concepts, and flawless execution. But what if we're missing something essential in this pursuit of completion?

At Commons of Practice, we believe that the journey is just as valuable as the destination. Our "Missing Brick" series celebrates the unfinished, the experimental, and the beautifully imperfect works that don't fit traditional frames.

The Beauty of Process

When we only showcase finished works, we lose the rich narrative of making. The failed experiments, the happy accidents, the moments of doubt and breakthrough—these are the stories that truly connect us as makers and humans.

Consider Maria Santos' ceramic vessels. The most powerful moment in her process isn't the final gold-leafed repair, but the intentional breaking—that moment of controlled destruction that opens new possibilities. This is the kind of story that gets lost when we only see the "finished" piece.

Redefining Completion

What does it mean for something to be "complete" anyway? In our rapidly changing world, perhaps the most honest response is to embrace the ongoing, the evolving, the perpetually in-progress.

Digital works can be updated, bio-materials continue to grow and change, and our understanding of our own work deepens over time. Why should we pretend that creation has a definitive endpoint?

Building Community Through Vulnerability

When we share our unfinished works, we invite others into our process. We create opportunities for collaboration, feedback, and mutual support that simply don't exist when we only present polished outcomes.

The Commons of Practice platform is designed to support this kind of vulnerable sharing. Every project page includes space for process documentation, work-in-progress images, and ongoing reflections. We want to see your sketches, your failures, your questions.

The Missing Brick

Our "Missing Brick" series takes its name from the idea that every creative work is part of a larger structure—a foundation we're building together toward a more equitable and imaginative design culture.

Some bricks are perfectly formed and ready to be placed. Others are still being shaped, fired, or even imagined. All are essential to the structure we're building together.

So we invite you: share your missing bricks. Show us your works in progress, your beautiful failures, your ongoing questions. Help us build a community that values process as much as product, journey as much as destination.