Joe. Blogs #48 – Sunday 15 October 2023
Howzit guys!
We have literally gone from the fridge straight into the frying pan!! Not sure what happened to spring but summer is here!!
This week I decided to talk about myself. 😊 People who know me well will know I’m very humble and don’t really like to talk about myself. I have realised that I am my brand, hence the name of my new company – Sean Pearce|architect + creative. Just like experience, your brand is who you are. As a Life Coach I also help people develop and define what their ‘brand’ is. So, with this in mind I thought I would share my journey as an architect and how my brand became what it is today.
I have always wanted to be an architect. My dad was a mechanical engineer and used to bring architectural blueprints home to work with. I remember asking him who created the drawings. We also built our new house when I was about 12 years old and remember being in awe of the architect we used for our house. I knew then what I wanted to be when I grew up. I love art at school and was very creative. I had my own style and way of doing things. Because of this my art teachers never thought much of my art. I was talented enough to draw anything I looked at, but this never appealed to me. I wanted to create something different, something that told people who I was. Even at university my lecturers gave me a hard time about my designs. One particularly bad lecturer called me an aesthete, he said I was more focused on the forms and shapes that the function. 25 years later and my forms and shapes are an inspiration to the many projects I have completed. I’ll never forget what he said, and I now use it as inspiration. Who wants a functional building that looks boring?!
After many difficult lecturers later, I left university in search of a job. My dad worked in the industry and knew a lot of different architectural practices and was ultimately responsible for getting me my first job. My dad specialised in shopping centres so the first company I worked for specialised in retail. A few years later I moved to another retail practice called Margoles, Dukes and Smith (MDS) thanks for a childhood friend who also worked there.
Shooting forward many years I started to wonder whether I was following the right path for me. I loved being a creative architect, a sensitive architect that loved to create sensitive and comfortable buildings. Unknowingly, I went into retail architecture because of my dad and school friend and never really gave it any thought at the time. A lot of my varsity mates went into residential or smaller mixed-use architecture. But we follow the path chosen for us and 25 years down the line I felt like I needed to either change my path or test my conviction.
As I’ve shared in my previous blogs, I got to a point where I wasn’t enjoying what I was doing as well as hating the lifestyle I had living in Gauteng. As a creative person, I needed to be in a creative environment, finding inspiration around me. I needed a change but wasn’t quite sure what that change should be. Gauteng became toxic for me and especially my kids. I wanted them to grow up in a better environment, so the decision to relocate to the Cape made some sense. At that stage I wasn’t even sure I still wanted to be an architect!
I have spent the past 10 months here in the Cape exploring and trying to find my passion again. It was both scary and exciting at the same time. I have always loved the Cape but never imagined myself living here. In Gauteng I was just existing…just surviving, but not living! Like most people, I found myself trapped in my own stresses and worst of all trying to justify why I was living there. Like a frog in hot water, we get so used to living a life we think is ok…just ok but we don’t appreciate how bad it really is.
Long story short, I not only love my new lifestyle here in the Cape, but I also found my passion for architecture again. I realised that its who I am and what defines me. One of my other passions is coffee and I have always wanted to own a coffeeshop. All going well this will happen next year and will be the new head office for Sean Pearce| Architect +creative – I work well by myself and need to focus on me as a brand. I have 25 years of experience with a lot of awards to my name. I work differently now and manage my time better, living the life I always wanted and working in-between!
So, I’m open for business – watch this space!
Have a super week everyone, GO bokke we are all behind you!!! See you on the other side!
Later,
Joe.blogs
