I used to love art class, too
Right now, I’m working on the overall design of a poster, an html email notice, and a website for our upcoming October Scientific Symposium in downtown Seattle. It’s been a wonderful change from staring at grant application instructions.
Second Rate Design Isn’t That Bad
I’m no professional designer. You’re not going to find me anywhere near cutting edge, but I do a quite passable job in the world of science. Almost every conference notice is a botched, confused mess of a variety of fonts. Sometimes, it seems as though the author found a long list of cool effects and decided then and there to use every damned one of them.
When I’m critically reviewing my own work, I live with good enough. I end up asking: How much is enough time?
What’s Really Helped
Asking questions, kindly requesting materials, and acting deferential have all served me just as much as any technical skill I have. If I had a fresh idea at any point, it’s only thanks to the examples of others. As usual, it’s the collaborative nature of the internet, that makes this stuff move so smoothly.
A year or so after I arrived in Minneapolis, I got a job at a small, independent print shop. Those places actually existed at one time. Kinko’s was a blossoming newcomer at that time. I did a lot of Pagemaker-based graphic design during my time there.
I cannot, for the life of me, understand how I did my job without email, but I did. Nobody had email back then except the early adopters. There were pagers, but few cell phones. When you left the house, you weren’t going to answer any phone calls until you returned… how strange.
My time at an independent print shop in 1995 felt the way this looks.
The point, beyond pointless nostalgia, is an old saw: talk to people. That technology is our baseline.
