Here I am – heart in hand (or morphing into a bird, rather) – once again apologizing for a long span of blog silence. But I’ve been busier than I have since… well, I can’t remember since when. And with the economy still recovering and so many friends looking for work, I am extremely grateful. Especially since I know a dry spell is always just around the corner. Such is the life of the self-employed.
But another reason I’m enjoying this giant mountain of work I’ve been buried under is that most of it is good stuff. And for a designer (well, for me at least) good stuff = 1 of 3 things:
1. Creative Freedom
2. Decent Budget
3. Likeable Clients
And in several cases, I’m even into my #4: Projects/Clients I Genuinely Support and/or Am Excited About. So yeah, I’m savoring this, counting my lucky stars, rubbing the Buddha, etc.
One of the projects I’m working on is for (SHOCKER!) an educational organization. Specifically, a nonprofit promoting early childhood literacy. I’m still in the process of completely overhauling their brand — logo to web site — so there’s nothing to share just yet. But stayed tuned…
But I digress… One of the goals of this blog was [full disclosure] to promote my design business. As I was coming up with ideas for different kinds of posts, I thought “Hey, I’ve done some child/parenting/education-related work… I can post some of that on the blog from time-to-time.” And as I started to look through my portfolio, I noticed A LOT of it.
The logo above is one of the earliest of those, a mark I created at my very first job out of college. The company (laboriously named DeWall Pollei & Cowley Advertising & Design) was a great bunch of folks and an ideal place to kick off a career. They worked my ass off, but I was also allowed to really “spread my wings” — specifically on this logo for Behavioral Health Institute, an organization that worked with kids with ADD/ADHD. I was pretty proud of this mark, and it was well received by both my creative director and the client.
This was also the first project I ever got published in PRINT, an annual showcase of the best graphic design in the country and one of the most prestigious design competitions around. It was one of the most exciting moments of my career. The notification letter came to the office on my birthday (sweet) but also just a few days after I’d given my notice that I was packing up and moving to Washington DC (bittersweet).
As a going away gift, the good folks at DP&C gave me a framed copy of the logo, which proudly sits on my desk to this very day.