You can see my current obsession with green and brown, and also in the second image my now waning obsession with red and cream. In the near future I hope to start investigating putting my little scratchings to print, and I’m going to look into a press to get that gorgeous letterpress effect.
A few days ago I formulated a goal for myself: to move away from being a graphic designer and to become someone who creates real tactile things. It was prompted in part by the quite severe RSI in my “mousing” arm. It’s the one appendage I (and other graphic designers) rely on and take for granted from day to day to perform tiny, precise and repetitive actions. In some ways, I’m glad that things have turned out this way, because it has pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me think about what I really want to accomplish in my life. I don’t want to sit behind a computer for 9 hours a day in five years time.
One of my dreams is to get into textile design and to create fabric to be used in soft furnishings and drapery, as well as wallpapers. I’m quite happy to have come to the realisation that I’m not a corporate sort of person, and I’m quite at home with the concept of “crafting” rather than being a cold design machine.
My immediate plan is not to change careers so drastically! I actually really enjoy where I currently work, and I learn so much every day because my manager is teaching me things I never thought I’d learn in my career – things like management and organisation. My goal is a five year goal; in the next year or so I’m going to look into training courses and scout for tools and machinery I may need in the future. Then I’m going to play and experiment, shortly before opening a web store. If all goes well, I should be able to move into opening an actual shop front with pretty things like stationery, ephemera, prints and soft furnishings.
Roll on the next five years! I know I’m going to have heaps of fun learning new things along the way, and I can hardly wait.
