Remember Snippets?

Today after class, driving home my mind was abuzz with blogging ideas.

Not really, my mind was more abuzz with apple turnovers than anything else, but I did turn the blogging idea around a little while, it's a long drive.

Initially I thought I'd talk about a book I've been reading and forego any sort of introduction but I guess that's not really fair. Then I remembered how and when I became aware of type as a designer and thought it might make an interesting back story or at least work as a reference for my type knowledge so far.

In 2002 after having dropped out of not one but 2 design programs I was hired by a quirky paper store owner in need of some sort of formal design experience for his budding wedding invitation business. He was *ahem* frugal and I was ready to sell myself short. We got along splendidly. Most of my days were spent politely smiling as bride after bride agonized over pressing decisions like white paper with gold flecks or gold paper with white flecks ("What do you think about the silver flecks, honey?"). There were busy seasons and some challenges and occasionally you got to know and understand a couple better and on a more rewarding level. Sometimes it really felt good to be a part of announcing the marriage of Mr. Thomas So-and-so to Ms. Jennifer So-and-so to the rest the world. After a while though, the invitations all started to look the same, varying only in color choice, quantity or expense.

Additionally they all dealt with type. Some were casually formatted, others followed strict guidelines of appropriateness. Some were a little edgy or experimental (and even a little interesting) in their font choices but most were pretty traditional and bland. The first word I learned that really applied to type was tracking. Mostly because we "tracked" the shit out of just about everything (All in MS Publisher). And once we'd dropped in the text we'd been given (and the clients had corrected it...then updated it...then updated it again...then added the names of their parents) we added as much line spacing as it took to fill out the page. Done and done. Where's my paycheck?

Looking back I'm glad I'll be learning to do it right. I'm glad I learned to do it wrong too. There's something to be said about learning from your mistakes.

There's something else to be said for hundreds of little mistakes that live on happily in hundreds of little wedding albums throughout the Puget Sound.

You're welcome married people of Seattle.