Failed It! How to turn mistakes into ideas and other advice for successfully screwing up

by Erik Kessels

A fun and fabulous take on the art of making mistakes. Erik Kessels celebrates imperfection and failure and shows why they are an essential part of the creative process.

Failed it! celebrates the power of mistakes and shows how they can enrich the creative process. This is part photobook and part guide to loosening up and making mistakes to take the fear out of failure and encourage experimentation.

It showcases the best and most hilarious examples of imperfection and failure across a broad range of creative forms, including art, design, photography, architecture and product design, to inspire and encourage creatives to embrace and celebrate their mistakes.

We live in an era when everyone is striving for perfection and we have become afraid of failure, which limits our potential. Mistakes help us find new ways of thinking and innovative solutions, and failures can change our perceptions and open up new ways of looking things. This book transforms mistakes from something to be embarrassed about into a cause for celebration.

It includes over 150 visual examples drawn from Kessels personal collection of artworks and found photographs, along with tips, quotes, anecdotes and wisdom for celebrating with failure. To quote Kessels: 'the ubiquity of Apple + Z, means that we can literally undo any mistake before it has had time to breathe, be considered and -- perhaps -- evolve into something else: a fascinating, strange, provocative or even original piece of work. This book asks readers to embrace their fuck-ups, learn from them and celebrate their tawdry glory'.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art, Design, Self Help, Business, Personal Development, Psychology

168 pages, Paperback

First published April 4, 2016

About the author

Erik Kessels (1966) is a Dutch artist, designer and curator with a particular interest in photography, and creative director of KesselsKramer, an advertising agency in Amsterdam. Kessels and Johan Kramer established the "legendary and unorthodox" KesselsKramer in 1996, and KesselsKramer Publishing, their Amsterdam-based publishing house, both of which they continue to run.

He is "best known as a book publisher specialising in absurdist found photography", extensively publishing his and others' found and vernacular photography. Notable works include the long-running series Useful Photography, which he edits with others, and his own In Almost Every Picture. Sean O'Hagan, writing in The Guardian, said "His magazine, Useful Photography, forgoes art and documentary for images that are purely functional. ... Humour is the unifying undercurrent here as it is in KesselsKramer's series of photo books, In Almost Every Picture".

Reviews

[Cătălina Steriu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it, as an invitation to break the everyday way of thinking and acting.

[Thanawat · Rating 2 out of 5]

ก็ ok นะ ถ้าหนังสือเล่มนี้ออกตัวว่าเป็นหนังสือรวมภาพศิลปะแห่งความผิดพลาด เพราะทั้งเล่มเต็มไปด้วยรูปภาพที่พลาดหรือเฟล ซึ่งในที่นี้ใีทั้งที่ตั้งใจและไม่ตั้งใจ พร้อมกับคำบรรยายที่มาหรือแรงบันดาลใจในการรวบรวมภาพเหล่านั้น

ถ้านึกไม่ออก ให้นึกถึงตอนเล่น facebook แล้วมี feed จำพวก
- ดูดีๆ สิ ภาพเหล่านี้อาจไม่ได้เป็นอย่างที่ตาเห็น
- รวมรูปสุดเฟล
- You had one job
อะไรเทือกนี้

ที่เหนือกว่า feed พวกนั้นคือผู้เขียนไปรวบรวมที่มาที่ไปและแรงบันดาลใจของการรวบรวมภาพของเหล่าศิลปินมาลงไว้ด้วย ซึ่งอ่านดูแล้วก็ ok นะ มีคนที่สามารถเอาเรื่องเฟล เฟล มาเป็นแรงบันดาลใจ รวบรวมเป็น collection ได้เหมือนกัน

อ่านแป๊บเดียวจบ เพราะส่วนมากของหนังสือเป็นรูปสี่สี ส่วนเนื้อหาก็เบาบาง จะดีมากถ้าไม่ได้ใส่คำสั่งสอนเชิงที่ว่า “อย่าไปกลัวความล้มเหลว ดูสิ ของเฟล เฟล ยังทำเป็นศิลปะได้เลยนะ” เพราะรู้สึกว่าหนังสือเล่มนี้มันไม่ได้ไปถึงฟังชั่นนั้น

รูปเฟลๆ + เจ้าของ collection + แรงบันดาลใจในการรวบรวม

แค่นี้ก็มีพลังมากพอแล้ว

[Arnied · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read on happy accidents in art and photography. For me there weren't enough great examples or enough insights. The books big message is that mistakes and failures often lead to genius. I believe that. So for everyone I know out there reading this...I promise to make more of them.

[Sarah Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quick read with some interesting insights on creativity and imperfection. It made me laugh, but also made me think differently about the creative process. I only wish it was a little longer and more in depth. I feel like it just skimmed the surface and would have liked the author to have gone a little deeper into the subject matter.

[Dr. Tobias Christian Fischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

One extraordinary book. One creative mind. The perfect match to craft something new.

[Evi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zoals we op het werk tegen onze stagiaire zeggen: 'je moet fouten maken om te kunnen leren'. Zo ook Erik Kessels, die in dit boek een ode doet aan missen, falen, mislukken, vallen, spelen en alle mogelijke woorden om ditzelfde begrip aan te duiden, en dit in alle mogelijke creatieve contexten.
De achterflap is bewust foutief gedrukt: omgekeerd. Zo kan je het boek fout vastnemen. Op p5 staat de meest geweldige lapsus: loftuitingen. Laat ons vanaf nu vooral loftuitingen maken over missen. Hoera voor het milsukken!

[Feuerfux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read für Perfektionisten.

[Abrils · Rating 3 out of 5]

A verrrr. Leído con mucho cariño porq mi hermana Alba me lo recomendó y me lo dejó. Yo le tenía el ojo echado pero imaginaba que tendría un aire así como con obsesión de ser importante... Y bueno el libro está okei dice cosas tipo el fracaso es lo mejor y tal pero luego da consejos tipo: no seas aburrido, ten ideas buenas, no seas común... Y no se ay. Igual esq yo no me entero pero no sé ahjaja creo q a veces es contradictorio y q idealiza un poco el tema de las casualidades, errores y éxitos y así. Un poco vendde motos diría. Eso sí me han encantado las imágenes y sobretodo como está maquetado el libro la portada y contraportada super chulo. Me ha encantado la silla lámpara ojala tener una pero con una silla más comoda tipo sillón jajaja.

[Alexandros Spyropoulos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read about failures and creativity. Very heavy on images that made it enjoyable

[Sacha · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, Kessels describes a wonderful, inspiring and mind-changing perspective on failures and the importance of making mistakes in order to achieve success. No success without failure, as if failure leads to success. Or is failure our success?

[Carolina · Rating 3 out of 5]

imperfection is always closer to reality.

[JulienneReads ✧.* ◡̈ · Rating 4 out of 5]

“We are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it… in the process we will catch excellence.”

A great morning read! It was short and the message is sort of redundant throughout the pages but I enjoyed the examples very much! I enjoyed how different artists formed their pieces through all kinds of imperfection.

[Beatriz · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐1/2 (Re-Read) It was an enjoyable quick read. It has mostly examples for photography and creative work, which was good for me. It is also uplifting and motivating. I just didn’t find it particularly astonishing. Just alright with cool examples.

[Majla]

This book would have been better if it included just the pictures and not the text.

It is superfluous and not an easy task to explain why some mistakes are actually no mistakes at all, especially if pictures speak for themselves.

Accident, fallibility, inexperience, dilettantism, the instinctive feelings but not the conscious reasoning make a photo sometimes excel (fail better?).

Why the spoilers?

[Zehra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hızlı okunan bir kitap. İçeriği ilham verici. Yorumunu bir ara yazarım herhalde ❤️

[Ayat · Rating 2 out of 5]

من الكتب الي ماحبيتها..
فيه افكار غريبة ماتقبلتها أو يمكن ماوصلت لي اي فائدة معنية 🙄💔💔.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Zaznaczyłam pare zdań, ale książka nie wniosła nic do mojego życia.
Niektóre obrazki były bardzo ładne, dlatego 2 gwiazdki.

[Julia Kasprzyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Luźna, fajna i inspirujaca ksiazka, niestety nie ze wszystkim sie zgadzam
Styl przyjemny, nawet sie uśmiałam na niekotrych fragmentach

[Dark Wind · Rating 3 out of 5]

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[Jaelynn Jenkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stories of failure are good for the soul. Seek failure and you'll find success.

[Sören Emler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sehr gut geschrieben und viele Denkanstöße!
Es sollten mehr Leute lesen und beherzigen. Fehler sind nicht schlimm, sie sind Teil unseres Lebens und man sollte aus ihnen lernen

[Anama · Rating 4 out of 5]

El don de los aficionados es la ingenuidad

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

i really liked this! usually not a fan of books with sparse text and lots of photos but i loved the selection of artwork and images, small moments when mundane imperfections shift the way we see the world.

[S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Equal parts art book and motivational treatise, Kessels describes how many of our strongly held opinions about success and failure — that the former requires perfection and the latter should be avoided at all costs — only work to impede our creative process. Everyone fails, he says, and only through such unsuccessful attempts can truly imaginative progress be made. "f you don't feel like an idiot at lest once a day," he suggests, "you need to work less and play more." All that is required is a modification of what we view as success, and he urges readers to think out of professionally lit-and-shot box by finding the beauty in imperfection. It's boring to be too clean, too neat, too predictable; finding worth in the unconventional provides all the ammunition required.

Charming and an easy read, highly recommended.

[Alexandria Bianca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up thinking it was a motivational book. It was but on the contrary it happened to be a book on photography. But hey, it has some great insights that could be applied to not just art but life. It was fun, witty & brilliant. He spoke about living outside the norm and accepting you're failures & turning them around. He put me at ease in my thinking about perfection. The biggest thing I took from it is that there isn't a thing such as "perfection." Perfection was merely a creation from people that think they need to put measures on life. What I may think is odd or a big flop could actually be the start of something beautiful or successful. Don't put measures on life.

[Sandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

A quick read that encourages you to make mistakes and turn them into creative ideas. It’s about letting go of perfection and embracing imperfection.

“Perfect is the enemy of the good. Free yourself from the tyranny of perfection!“

I‘m disappointed with this one. I didn‘t expect it to have any groundbreaking insights but I compared it to Paul Arden‘s It‘s Not How Good You Are, It‘s How Good You Want To Be , which I loved. I am just not feeling the writing and the examples of photography in this one.

[Rick Marcello · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Dare to be disliked", is my favorite quote from this book. If you like to win popularity contests, chase perfection, or uphold the status quo, then this book ain't for you. Failed it main concept is to embrace mistakes and "failures", especially within the context of art. The book balances thought with visuals of mistakes and screw-ups. It is a great book because it challenges the reader to think differently about perceived mistakes and embrace the abnormal to foster creativity.

[Hanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A funny, inspiring and quick read that will instantly help you to feel better about your artistic work. Because who hasn't felt like a failure before? Kessels shows that great artwork wouldn't be possible without making mistakes and that perfection will mostly lead to boring art.

[Obeida Takriti · Rating 3 out of 5]

فكرة الكتاب بسيطة وصغيرة يشرجها بكثير من الصور والأمثلة..
ليس كتاباً تعليمياً بقدر ما هو كتاب لتحفيز بعض الأفكار المختلفة..
الكتاب عبارة عن أمثلة لأشياء فشلت، والسؤال هو هل بالفعل فشلت أم هي صورة مختلفة لم نعتدها فقط..

[Jabali Sawicki]

Great quick read on creativity and failure. Full of wisdom and thoughtful photography. Will definitely go back to it like those Austin Kleon books...