Dead Batteries

Yeah, it’s been quiet around here lately. Plenty to write about, just haven’t found a good enough way to write it. I’ve been very critical of myself lately, to the point where I can’t even write a sentence without hating every word of it. I get that way sometimes. Why? I don’t know. I can’t explain it. Oh allright then I’ll try…

I had been having some nagging feelings about my design work recently. I’m pretty sure I’ve just been experiencing a bit of a burn-out, as the past few weeks have been very busy and stressful. I started feeling like the design work I was doing was not really touching anyone on the kind of level I would like. I’d get to the point where I would feel like the work was completely selfish and irrelevant, only touching people on a very superficial level. But I suppose that’s the nature of marketing design. If I wanted to touch people on some truly deep and profound level I’d probably have to hightail to Paris and mingle with the “real” artsy types. I know what would happen, I’d come running back after winding up painting road signs.

Don’t get me wrong, I love what I’m doing. I’m just in a rut. It happens. After a while, the batteries have to be changed. So lately I’ve been looking everywhere for some sort of seeds of artistic revolution. I’ve been looking for something to convince me that my designs are still worth making and looking at, that they aren’t as irrelevant and silly as I fear.

Initially I thought that what I needed was some time and space to think. I thought that maybe I just needed more time to be able to focus on my personal life, without all the distracting clutter of marketing bottom lines and mission statements. But I need to save that for later. It’s way too early in the game for a time out.

The fundamental question for me isn’t how do I as graphic artist touch the world, but how the world touches me as a graphic artist, and how that shows up in my work. There’s certainly more to this story, and there are all kinds of related tangents, but I’m afraid I’ve gone on too long already. The rest will likely come out another day. For now, I’m not really going to change anything, I just need to relax and look at things in a more positive way. It gets tough sometimes to overcome this perpetual state of angst that I seem to be in.

Thank you as always for your kind attention, and please let me know if you’d like me to clarify, recant, or feel embarrassed about anything. See-ya later!