In addition to raising two kids, earning a living and working on our marriage, Dan and I are undertaking what may prove to be the most challenging task we've faced to date: cleaning out our attic.
We've lived in our house since 1993, and as you know, stuff piles up. Dan recently tackled and organized our garage and now our sights are set on getting up in our attic and figuring out what sentimental bomb exploded up there and how much can stay and how much can go to either the trash or the Goodwill.
On Saturday, he placed a small pile of papers in front of me of stuff I hadn't seen for years. They included the receipt from my first new car purchase, the resume I used to look for work in Minnesota and a contact sheet of photos from my first corporate job as the editor of the Minyard Country News.
Reading my Highlights of Qualifications (yeah, that one rolled off the tongue) and seeing the first bullet point, my hopeful over a year's experience of magazine writing, editing, layout and design made me feel simultaneously tender towards that young, aspiring writer and much, much older and wiser.
This slightly padded resume was the one that got me into the job that would eventually lead to what has been my career in graphic design. It's funny, but to this day, I still believe I really am committed to the craft of written, verbal and visual communication. In fact, that might be an even better tagline than taking the 'crap' out of scrapbooking.
Speaking of scrapbooking, I knew I was going to have to do something with the headshots.
If you were to open the dictionary and look up the word fresh, you would see this contact sheet. No question in my mind.
I knew if I sat down to write that I would have more than enough for a layout, and that's what I did, resulting in this page.
THE JOURNALING: Fall 2012. Dan and Cathy begin the arduous task of cleaning out the attic, a oft forgotten space that holds things of sentimental value or things we’ve just been too lazy to dispose of. Baby swings, school diorama projects, models of the Titanic, and American Girl dolls valued in the $100s, just to name a few. Dan’s been more active in the daily attic sweeps and just the other day, left a pile on the kitchen counter for my viewing pleasure. Included were: the receipt for my first ever new car purchase, a Hyundai Excel in 1989; my first resume used to look for work in Minnesota, and this contact sheet of headshots from my first corporate job as the Editor of the Minyard Country News in Coppell, Texas. The haircut was affectionately coined “The Buckethead.” My skin was as smooth and wrinkle free as a freshly pressed and starched shirt. My suit? A snappy little number from the fine folks at Esprit. I mean, if I was going to sell out to corporate culture, I’d be damned if I wasn’t wearing a hip, designer label. I don’t remember looking this fresh ever. This was me at 22. Young, idealistic, in love with the idea of being a journalist and wondering what my post-college life would look like in the greater Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex. I still remember the smell of the hot wax heating up in the morning for the production art team. I remember Coffee Mate and smoking in the break room at 7 a.m. every morning. I remember seeing a Macintosh computer in action and thinking: I want some of that. Though I was only at Minyard a short time, it really did set the tone for my life in the corporate creative world and for that, I’m grateful. I learned some real skills there, namely, how to fit in and make people you work with like you. That’s a skill you don’t necessarily pick up in college, but it has served me incredibly well in my work life throughout the years. Thanks, Minyard.
There isn't much going on with this design. Yes, there is symmetry. Yes, there is a visual triangle of the color red. Honestly, I could do a million pages just like this one if it meant the story was saved.
Here's to scrapbooking and being committed to the craft of written, verbal and visual communication.
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