Now You See It and Other Essays on Design

I could shade the hell out of anything, but realistic drawing was considered a pretty cheap commodity. What was valued in the fine arts department seemed to be self-expression, or individuality, or passion, or something mysterious like that. Graphic design, on the other hand, was taught in the tradition of Jon Gnagy: methodical, straightforward, and, to quote the man himself, “genuine fun.” So I became a graphic designer.

I may have become a graphic designer because I was a frustrated writer

Words are at once the designer’s raw materials and reason for being, simultaneously a means to an end and the end itself. I am suspicious of any graphic designer who is not an enthusiastic reader.

Typography is the fundamental starting point for our work. Letterforms together become words, then sentences, then paragraphs, all in the service of communicating ideas.

Words made art come alive. Combining words and pictures gave form to ideas

I may have become a graphic designer because I was a frustrated writer.