I love being someone that people turn to for help. I'm not talking about the "help me put my life together" sort of help, because I'm really no good at that. In fact, right after the divorce, my friend, Blake, had to pretty much put my life back together FOR me because I couldn't figure out how to do it.
Today I get this email from one of my best friends, Brian, and he sends me a link to something and says - tell me what you think. Now - people who have known me longer than 10 minutes know not to say that unless they really, really mean it because I'm gonna be honest, no doubt.
I think that my favorite thing about Brian asking for help is that he's still finding his design style. He's a bit timid - ironic because Brian is the most out-on-a-limb person I've ever met in my whole life. I'm constantly pushing him - make the graphic hang OUT of the box, make things bigger, bolder, use contrast, use color. And then he sort of looks at me and goes, "Oh, yeah. Why didn't I think of that?"
The thing about being in a design profession is that you have to find your own style. I mean - let's face it. If Coca Cola ads looked like Tampax ads, we'd be in trouble. Who wants lavender soda cans?
I feel like I got out of school and started designing but was completely clueless. I found my way. I found my style. My favorite part of my job, though, is the details. I love fine tooth combing designs - adding icons, letter spacing, contrast. I love formatting content.
Our office is well rounded. We have exceptional designers and mediocre designers. We have designers that couldn't care less about content formatting and me, who could arrange content all day long. We work well together. And lately, we've started playing well together. So today, it was the biggest honor imaginable when we were recognized for our outstanding efforts with an award for our company. We're all proud of what we do and who we do it with, and to be recognized for that is, in short, incredible.
Our new office space is coming together. It looks amazing. We're all trying to decide where we want to sit and things of that nature. We're itching to move. The new space is unique - it sort of defines who we are. Pair that with our new award, and we feel unstoppable. We're having champagne and donuts in the morning to celebrate. Life, my friends, is good.
