Why am I a graphic designer?
I think the new girl who works at the wine store is really cool.
If I couldn’t make a living as a graphic designer, would I work at the wine store?
Why am I a graphic designer? Just because I have a BFA?
I like wine more than I like graphic design.
I am a graphic designer because
- My friends are graphic designers and it is a topic we share.
- My family are graphic designers and it is a lens through which I was raised to see.
- I have honed my taste in the vernaculars of graphic design.
- I can work by myself, and I can work with others.
- I like metaphors, figures of speech.
- I pick up vibes — I am sensitive.
- I am ambitious and independent.
- I am pragmatic and impatient — too impatient to be an architect, for instance, and to have to wait for the building to be built.
- I come and go, I take advantage of opportunities given to me.
- What I like doesn’t have to be what I do for labor.
- Graphic design is the most lucrative path for the training I have.
- Even on days when I don’t like the labor of graphic design, I can take pleasure in the things I do like.
- My studio is where I work, but my kitchen is often where I feel most creative.
- Straddling practice and pleasure is not binary.