We cannot take care of people until we have taken care of ourselves.

principle — attributed to Tahira Endean

Endean's seventh intention is wellness, and the line she puts on it is the most often skipped: wellness for the team and the designer, not just for the participants. The event-production industry chews through its practitioners. The discipline of designing for participant wellness while neglecting the designer's own is structurally unstable. Designers who do not take care of themselves cannot consistently take care of others. The implication is practical. Sleep, food, exercise, and recovery time are not luxuries between events. They are the operational infrastructure that allows the next event to happen at the same quality.

For event designers and agency principals thinking about the sustainability of their own careers and their teams. The principle is most useful as a self-check when the calendar has stopped including any recovery time.

wellness, self-care, designer-wellbeing, sustainability