As a follow up to my two most recent blogs, I wanted to clarify why I'm into graphic design/typesetting/document creation. It isn't because I'm particularly artistic, nor is it because I believe it's my calling in life, nor is it just a whim.
There are two specific events that triggered my enthusiasm.
First, as I was sitting in front of my computer one day, I realized that I'd spent thousands of dollars over the years on my computer, and would have spent more had not my computer engineer friend David Wiley assembled them for me, and yet it had never earned me a penny in return. And, as I sat there, I got sorta mad. I thought "Why am I working for my computer instead of the other way around?"
A computer can, after all, do a lot more than run
Diablo II or Warcraft III, if given a chance.
The second event happened at work. I was in "express", waiting to help customers make their copies (I work at a nationally known xeroxography franchise), and this little old woman came up to do some color copies. She seemed upset, but didn't strike me as an the intrinsically irascible or moody elderly-type. So, I casually asked what was the matter.
She said that she'd just asked about getting a simple invitation designed and was told she'd have to pay $60 an hour to either my employer or a nearby graphic designer for its creation, and she simply couldn't fathom why. In that moment I knew I agreed with her. It really wasn't fair that someone like her should have to pay a huge amount of money just to have simple typesetting done, and I knew that I could do at least a decent job for a lot less (since I was already employed).
So, I purchased the Adobe CS2 suite, and set about learning the ropes. Jim Mullen of the Type Factory help me tremendously in the beginning, as I learned the terms and concepts behind graphic design, and then it's been about three and half years of reading, studying and experimenting.
What's interesting to me is that no matter how much I learn, there's always more to uncover - mostly because everything in media nowadays is connecting to everything else. Print content can be repurposed for the web and vice versa, so you have to know something about both. You have to understand about file types - where they came from, why they were developed, and which you use for what purpose. You have to understand about vector vs raster images, drawing vs photography, color theory, design theory, xeroxography vs offsetting printing vs digital printing vs silk screening, freeform design vs rigid typesetting, psychology, and on and on.
I suppose a third reason to do it is that I love fonts, and if I were a mix between Peter Roget (of Roget's Thesaurus fame) and endlessly rich Bill Gates, I'd spend all my time collecting fonts and then organizing them into various categories. There's millions of them at this point, so it'd be a lifelong project.
Overall, I'm rather proud of myself for tackling a fairly specific, difficult and detail oriented hobby/profession, and for persevering at it for no reason other than I felt I should. No one made me or asked me to learn it, and no one else I know or have met, except Jim, has ever tried to learn it as thoroughly as I have. Lots of people at work can use one or more of the Adobe CS products, and in some cases quite expertly, but none of them could also tell you
why things work the way they do, nor can they talk about design theory.
My conclusion has been that it's simply the nature of people in my family to completely understand things and not just make them work. After all, if you don't know the "why" of something, then if it goes wrong, the * hits the fan and there's *-all you can do about it.
till my next repurposeless post,
Cheerio!
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