What do you want to be when you grow up? As an “art kid,” I was obsessed with drawing, painting, creating, building. I even remember cutting out stories and headlines from the newspaper and pasting them up on my own paper. Layout, right out of the gate.
Layout and design have been an undercurrent of my whole adult life. The thing I have a knack for and occasionally do professionally (or at least for pay). The thing I sometimes imagine as an alternate timeline: leaning into the design work I did in the mid 90s and making that my life’s path.
As of summer 2024 I have not one but two graphic design clients. A couple of years ago I added design work to my Newberry Consort portfolio. (I’ve worn a number of hats since about 2002, including a stint of program book creation in the mid-aughts.) And a few months ago, Blue Heron (Boston) brought me on board to do their graphic design. Between this work and the projection design I do for the Consort, there are now weeks where design is all I do. How lucky am I? This may not be the alternate timeline, but it’s a marvelous third or fourth act.