One infamous day at Marietta College, my go-to nay-sayer, Andreas Tabor, said to our design class, "Sometimes you have to smother your own baby." That sounds harsh, but what he meant was, sometimes you have to ax your own project, regardless of the blood, sweat, and tears you've invested. That's exactly what happened late in 2015 when I deleted my website.
Honestly, my website had been bothering me for a while (I know, this is common among designers. Creating your own brand is... different.). It wasn't until I had to explain to a group of Experience Institute students what I do all day every day that I realized how gray an area my daily duties had really become. I'm a graphic designer. Also an artist. Also this. And a little of this. And sometimes that. Damn.
Since I ventured out on my own 2 years ago, I've done all kinds of work: designing, painting, drawing, direct mailers, newsletters, content editing, event planning, project management, small business consulting, serving, catering, hosting on Airbnb...
This was exactly what was wrong with my website; photo galleries did nothing to show the process, to cover the conversation, to document the solution to the original problem. Visitors learned a bit about my clients, but nothing about me and my process. Why would a potential client want to work with me?
Over the next year, I'll be posting about a project that I'm working on or have completed each week. This newsletter is being reborn to share those posts and to get a conversation started. Here's to documenting the process.