When I was four my mother bought me one of those Fisher Price doctor sets as inspiration for me to pursue a career in medicine. She thought if she introduced me to the field early on I would then gain interest in the industry of saving lives. Well, she knew that dream was lost when I proceeded to jam the toy syringe into her arm for our imaginary "routine exam." Had it been real, she — the patient, would have been seriously injured from the severe force of my injection. I would play with that set for a minute then abandon the toy stethoscope for my crayons and color for hours. Yes, it had been determined — I was not going to be a doctor.
Six years later I attempted to start my very own neighborhood newsletter for kids called Saturday Morning News. My friend's mom had this typewriter, which I obsessed over, and she would let me borrow it just so I could type little stories and letters. (Yes, I used a typewriter! This is aging me.) So I typed up the little "articles," created ads for my mom's then business and made Xerox copies at school (I was also VERY obsessed with the copy-machine). I had a newsletter and was very pleased to pass them out to my neighborhood friends for free, although it clearly stated on the upper right hand corner that it was 25¢. I only "published" two, but it was a good run :).
In the sixth grade I ran for class president. I won, but my favorite part of the whole experience was designing the posters for my campaign. Then in high-school I was all about writing stories and trying to design my own clothes. In every stage of my life I was experimenting with creative ways of expression through visual media. I was a designer and didn't even know.
Lately, my Design & Me posts have been very much about nostalgia and my early years of design. I think it's because I'm about to graduate and I'm thinking about all the things that lead me up to this point. From that disastrous injection to my love of crayons and obsessing over a typewriter it amazes me how who you are can develop so early and so effortlessly. Those things I did then are things I love now as an artist and designer. I mean, of course, my taste has evolved, but that foundation has been laid. Now it's just a matter of looking at all those things, evolving from them and executing.
