By Daniel Wiggins
// This book contains observations on life and design and where they meet, from the Milton Glaser Summer Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, in August of 2009.
D
Louise Fili Duane Michaels & Myself
des
Desig Design is...
aa art for a purpose,
communication.
Design is not always
(But sometimes it is).
is 1% designing
fuck
What’s that saying about happy accidents?
(People I don’t know)
(Buy this!!)
(As quick as possible)
Perception is reality, in all things.
ou ar n eve ou mu ve yo You are an event. You must live your life.
I moved to New York to have adventures.
Every day is an adventure.
-Duane Michaels
re ent, must our
Duane moved to New York for adventures. Jennifer Hudson’s character in Sex and the City moved to fall in love. Secretly, I believed I could do the same. In reality, I moved to New York for Pratt, but truly I wanted to fall in love, with the City, with a new life, and hopefully, one day, with someone special.
I thought this was one of the most touching stories from the entire workshop. Milton has such an amazing way of telling stories so symbolic of life, work, and design in such simple terms. Do good work. Such a simple concept, but how many of us really do “good� work? How much of the work you create are you proud of ?
It’s funny what changes in a year. I’m well on my way to reaching some of my goals. I’ve finished my first year of Graduate School at Pratt, so I’m another step closer to working in the city. This summer I moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn where I now ride the L train at Bedford, as I fantasized. A few of my statements were ridiculous, and I probably said them to appear “healthy” to the class (i.e. working out in the morning-I’d never do that, or eating sandwiches with wheat bread). The most glaring observation is how many times I mentioned being in a relationship with “him.” I talked about our house, we do this and that, etc, twenty-seven times. When I wrote this story, I was in my first “real” relationship, but knew we wouldn’t survive my approaching move to New York. By never mentioning his name, I designed this essay as a first attempt at breaking my dependence from the relationship that consumed my life the entire year before. A year later, he’s gone his way, and I’ve gone mine, but when I have that perfect day, I look forward to sharing it with “him” ... whoever he turns out to be.
Life is n you expe everythin wanted.
nothing ected but ng you
The first person began reading his perfect day aloud to the class, as we all were to do. He began describing his day and it started off pretty typical. Shortly, he got to the part where he talked about spending the day with his wife, and described in vivid detail how she looked him in the eyes. Suddenly he began to cry, and continued crying through the rest of his story. I thought he was going to stop reading and sit down, but he slowly struggled through until he finished, minutes later. I was shocked, why was the masculine All-American looking guy crying in a room full of strangers? Granted I’m very sensitive, and just about anything makes me cry, but this guy was straight! Every single person after him cried reading their stories. Some cried talking about their kids, while others cried talking about their family and friends. The one common thread was that everyone talked about spending their day surrounded by love. By this point, I couldn’t stop crying. I sat in my seat, unable to look anyone in the eyes, and focused on the tile floor. Just thinking about the words of my story made me overcome with emotion. I thought about my life, who I love, and what really matters to me. It was one of the most genuine moments of self-reflection I have ever experienced. I took the Milton Glaser Summer Program to learn more about art and design and to meet Milton of course. I left with so much more. I never considered how events, places, and people in our lives change how we design. I always thought one didn’t have much to do with the other. In the end, the class was truly nothing I expected, but somehow ended up being everything I wanted.
It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish.