As a designer, it is a large part of my job to be conscious about my decisions and how they will affect the client and/or people I am working with. I need to get the correct message across to ensure the brand says what it is supposed to visually, all the while making sure the client is on the same page and we are both driving toward a solution. Along with the message, a designer needs to think of how their designs will work within the environment we are working in, whether it be a banner ad, signage or a business card. These are thoughts and considerations that are always on the mind of a designer. We are constant problem solvers, empathetic of the people who we are working with’s goals as a company, and developing solutions for those problems. For some time now, I have wanted to utilize these skills of design thinking and problem solving to inspire and provoke thought in people in a more direct manner outside of the business world. After some thought and back and forth in which way I should go, I decided to begin this blog, despite some of the bullshit and excuses I conjure up in my head.
To give some further context to whom I am, this blog and this post, we should start a little further back. Prior to my career in design, I was doing masonry construction, which is much more of a brute, blue collar profession and a bit of a far cry from the white-collar office life of design. Despite that fact, there was always something in me that wanted to do something creative. As a young kid, I loved to draw, and would illustrate Tasmanian Devil, Spider-Man, Batman and various comic book characters over and over in an obsessive manner whenever I could. It seemed like a logical choice to pursue something in the design field as usually what you enjoy doing as a kid is a good indication of what you should do in your future. So, after about 12+ years in the masonry trade, I gave it up to pursue design, following my gut and one my passions as a young buck. I took my ass back to school, learned the craft in a formal manner, and won an award in branding design for my work at the end of my schooling. I am thoroughly enjoying the path in which design has brought me, but recently, this itch to do something more came back to me. It is not that I want to give up the design practice, but I have been wanting to contribute to and use the things I have learned in design in a different way, I just wasn’t sure what may the best avenue for me to do this.
I went back to the drawing board and began thinking what else I was into when I was a young kid around the age of 7-8, and I remembered distinctly how much I wanted to be a doctor. I used to love to watch ER shows when the doctors are in the operating room and they are dealing with patients who usually come in with serious trauma or need to be operated on immediately. I would watch as the doctors hastily but cautiously cut open patients and went to work. If you’ve ever seen these shows, the scene can be a bloody mess, but they were very literally saving peoples lives. What struck me about the life of a doctor wasn’t so much the operating part (which today, I can’t even watch that shit), it was the end result which was helping people by saving their lives. AsI do help people in a business sense by enhancing their presence through visual design and strategy, In an abstract way, I knew this is what I wanted to do with this blog and writing; helping people by at least making them think or“saving their lives” usually from themselves.
For some time now, I have been wanting to start a blog of sorts, but the major hesitation from doing so was from worry. I know I want the blog to be just as much about design as it is life topics in general and this led me to thinking: what will these design clients think after they read some of my stuff? What if they read something that they find unappealing, crass, not funny or any multitude of things? I debated separating it completely from my design work and making it its own entity and website to remain sort of anonymous and avoid any criticism or unwanted feedback. But after rattling these questions and concerns in my head for a while, along with a reflective vacation pondering the idea and concept. I came to one conclusion: Just f****** do it. I figure, the clients who don’t like what I have to say or can’t relate, that would be some what of an indication of how we may not jive in a business relationship. Conversely, those who read my stuff and like it, that will only strengthen our client and designer bond. And above all else, it is something I really want to do.
The overarching goal of this blog is to air out some of the thoughts I have pertaining to design, leadership, time management, being abetter person, straightening yourself out, personal observations, and a multitude of topics pertaining to life whether it be humorous, pop-culture related, for entertainment value, or simply food for thought. As human beings we experience a lot of the same things in life and I believe sharing experiences from a new perspective may be of help. I feel even if one of my posts just hits one person and has an uplifting energy or effect on them, then this has been a success.
If there is any takeaway from this process of posting this blog to the public, and the self-analysis and tinge of doubt that came along with it, it would be to follow your gut and your heart and just do it. Life goes by fast and only speeds up as you get older, and from personal experience, you’ll always regret the shit you never tried, rather than the things you went after, regardless if it works out or not. So without further ado, here it is, get your thinking caps on, or at least prepare for the messages that are to come across. Peace.