happy 2015!
Starting a new year requires a little house cleaning, don’t you think? We thought so, too, thus the new blog title and logo.
2014 was a year filled with many ups and downs (more on that in a minute), and I didn’t really have a place to talk about those issues or how they affected my professional life. Since most of our member designers and team members are juggling design & life, or life & design, if you prefer, it only seemed fitting that we talk about both here. (One thing informs the other, right? Some days I can’t think about design because life is in the way, and some days I can’t think about life because design is in the way. Most days are a semi-chaotic mash up of the two.) So, design and life it is in 2015.
2014…where do I start? For AFB, it was a great year, with some fabulous new members joining our ranks (you’ll be “meeting” them here over the next months) and really fantastic dream clients coming our way. We also launched a new Guidebook for our member designers, which functions like an assignment notebook and design toolkit all in one and helps our designers design not just better, but smarter. (I even set aside my fear and loathing of being photographed or videotaped to create video talks and tutorials for the Guidebook!) Finding success in licensing your work isn’t just about having the right look, or following the right trend, it’s about understanding the products you’re designing for – how they’re created and how they’re sold – and our Guidebook gives members designers all the info they need to find the sweet spot where great style and art that sells converge.
On a personal level, 2014 was, well, a roller coaster. In late June, my mother was diagnosed with a grade IV glioblastoma. In layman’s terms, that’s a really aggressive and terminal brain tumor. What followed her diagnosis were six months of doctors, hospitals, rehab facilities and me and my family getting really familiar with a lot of medical terms I never thought I’d have to learn. Despite a team of fantastic doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital here in Chicago, my mom passed away in the early hours of December 22, almost 6 months to the day from her diagnosis.
It is pretty hard to go through an experience like that and not feel changed in a way, and having it all come to an end right as the year is closing really forces you to think about what you learned in the process. So: what did I learn?
1. Stay healthy.
While my mom was never hugely overweight, she not only didn’t exercise, she smoked from her teens until I was in college (about 20 years ago if you’re counting). Neither of these things caused her tumor, but they did contribute to her being in less than fighting shape going into her illness, and effects of these two things caused many side issues along the way and hastened the inevitable considerably. I’m a live and let live person, but smoking is a big no-no, people, and apparently it’s also a really good idea to exercise at least a little. (Exercise is not a go-to leisure activity for me, and I get super annoyed with people who want to talk about fitness or their mega healthy diets non-stop – bo-ring – so I totally get it that adding exercise when you’d rather be doing something else is not easy.)
2. Tell people what to expect.
My mom spent the first part of her illness at Northwestern Memorial Hospital here in Chicago. We didn’t notice this until my mom was later hospitalized in a much smaller hospital in my hometown of Milwaukee, WI, but the staff at Northwestern, from doctors to nurses to assistants, told us what to expect every step of the way, and that contributed hugely to our peace of mind. That made me realize how the relatively simple act of setting expectations – good or bad – makes everything easier. Tell people what you’re about to do and why.
3. Be kind.
My mom was a really kind person. She wasn’t perfect, but she was kind to family, friends and strangers alike. She made meals for people when they needed them, or babysat a kid when someone was in a jam, or took the time to have a daily chat with the employees of the Einstein’s she and my dad went to every morning for the last 20 years. When you live life like that, spreading yourself just a bit beyond yourself and your immediate family, you will be pleased to find yourself receiving a ton of support if you’re ever ill. And your funeral will be packed with people who remember some kindness small or large. And one of those Einstein’s employees will take time off of work to come to your funeral and be a comfort to your grieving family. While it’s important to be kind online in this new social media world we live in, what I am really talking about is being kind in a way that might go undocumented (gasp!) or seemingly unnoticed. Sure, you can keep sharing news stories of some stranger’s fabulous deed, or you can “like” a bunch of things on Facebook, or you can talk on your blog about making a difference and “being real”, but none of those things are a substitute for getting out there and actually doing something kind, real or meaningful.
My hope for 2015 is that I can apply these lessons to design and life, not to create not a balance between the two – that implies that they’re mutually exclusive in a way – but to create a stronger, more meaningful connection between them. Happy 2015 – Here’s to Design & Life!