I was considering Communication Arts the other day – one of the remaining publications dealing with the profession of graphic design. It occurs to me that a lot of the material featured in it is irrelevant to the new nature of graphic design.

Let me explain.

It used to be that graphic designers were paid for their ability to “sell” a product or service and for their skills in formal graphic arrangement. And, also, they were the folks who had access and training on the tools for producing design. The general public was uninitiated in the realm of design and advertising and, I believe, it held a sense of magic for them.

Now graphic design is very well understood by the general public. The tools are common and most of the mystery is long gone. Money spent on graphic design and advertising must directly correlate to a measurable result.

This is where I believe that Communication Arts and other similar magazines are falling short in their content. As I look through the magazine, I see lots of great design, beautiful compositions and innovative messages. All of which seem to be produced and included for the inward-looking indulgence of other designers.

Some of my most beautiful designs haven’t pulled very well.

While some of my ugliest designs have been very successful.

What I’ve realized is that “pretty” and “successful” aren’t the same thing. You design for your audience, not for yourself or other designers. Your results determine your success. I don’t want to see juried work anymore. I want to see successful work. Instead of listing who the Art Director, Designer, Copywriter, etc. were, how about listing the cost of the job, the target goal and how well it performed.

I’ve seen it written: “Never has so much been written by so many for so few.” or something like that.

Now I don’t pretend that many people read this blog. Or even that what I have to say is important.

But now I’m thinking that blogging (for the common man) is a dead language. Its probably been supplanted by Facebook and other social media. I’m OK with that.

Anyway, as I work on my website revisions, I may phase-out this blog or shift it more towards a singular purpose/topic. (Which I probably should have done a long time ago.)

Facebook.

I like it. I hate it. As a father of three my socialization time (with my adult, non-co-worker friends) is pretty scarce. So it’s a great way to keep in touch.

But I’ll admit that I’ve gotten many, many friend requests where I ask my wife: “Do I know ‘so and so?”

In the end I don’t think it offers anything terribly novel accept for bringing the beauty parlor gossip paradigm into a modern medium. I mean, we all like to have our noses in other peoples business right?

I’m not a technological or social luddite, but I’m wondering if I should give Facebook a try. In no particular order, here are some of my thoughts:

1. I’m asked by clients to integrate Facebook into their business schema – would like to have first-hand knowledge if it would make my service better.

2. It would be nice to connect with old or lost friends.

3. If they were really my friends, I probably wouldn’t have lost contact with them in the first place.

4. I don’t want to be available to everybody.

5. I don’t want to damage feelings by not friending someone or limiting friend access.

6. I like the active community of Facebook and ability to share with many folks at once.

7. I’m afraid it would become a “maintenance” task for me. (I don’t need any more obligations)

If anyone has any input, I’d love to hear it.

My wife and I are pretty strict on our childrens’ bedtime routine.

So last night when our six-year-old yelled down for some help well after bedtime, we thought we were in for some discipline time. But it turns out he wanted some help sounding out a word!

He had been spending his time in bed reading with his headlamp on! My wife very eagerly ran upstairs to help him out. And he ended up reading Green Eggs and Ham in its entirety.

This has brought tears of joy to our eyes… and hope to the world.

You might be aware that as a person ages, they will perceive time to move at a ever increasing rate. It’s age-relative. For example: to a two-year-old, one year is 50% of his life. To a 50-year-old, one year is 1/50th of his life, or if gauged on parity with the two-year-old, would be percieved as a week’s worth of time.

I simply don’t have time these days. Which got me thinking… Maybe the perception of time is a little more like a bell curve. It seems to go slowly at first, when your young. Then it exponentially increases until it reaches it’s peak when you’re about my age. And then, hopefully, it exponentially decreases until you’re sitting on the beach all day long in your old age with all the time in the world.

I hope so at least. I’m not resolved to this theory. I actually think our lives’ complications (mainly technology) have something to do with the epidemic shortage of time we all seem to suffer from.

Or it could just be as simple as not knowing how to say “no”.

Try as I might, some things are hard to change about myself. First of all, I like unique cars. And for what I’m able to afford right now, this usually translates into worn-out foreign pieces of junk.

I had about had it with my 1985 BMW. And after I had to have the kids in it on a very hot day (of course it didn’t have air), I decided I’d REALLY had enough of it. So I put it on Craig’s list for $1000.

Later that week I decided to knock on one of my neighbor’s door who had a nice looking Saab sitting in the yard for awhile – not moving. $500 later and I was the proud owner of a non-running shiney “new” Saab which – I was told- had “very cold air!”

Well, the Saab needed a little more repair than the broken hose the previous owner said was the only thing wrong. And it’s been in the shop awhile. Every day becoming a little less of a bargain.

Meanwhile I’ve been driving my Suzuki Sidekick convertible (which doesn’t have a top). And it’s been raining. Not the kind where if you drive fast enough you don’t get wet. More like the kind of rain that creates standing water in the floorboard that gets the bottom of my pants soaked.

I’ll learn… someday!

I’ll get right to it. I fell off a ladder with a chainsaw in my hand and cracked my head open on a stump.

various events over the last few weeks have conspired to keep me out of the water. First was a little elective procedure which kept me out for two weeks. I deliberately scheduled it for the day before we went to Ohio for a week. Just so I wouldn’t be tempted to surf. The second week was OK due to mediocre surf.

Then I surfed three days in crap.

Then I split my head.

Just doin’ a little yard work. You, know the usual. Up on a step ladder holding my chain saw with one hand over my head. At one point the branch bound the bar on my saw so I had to go get the broom to push the branch up in order to free my still-running chainsaw which was hanging up there.

Then finally the branch was cut through. It springed back knocking the ladder out from underneath me. I counter-fell backwards. Thankfully I had the sense to hold the chainsaw AWAY from me, but I sawed a cool line down my neighbor’s fence.

When my backside landed, my head fell against the edge of a stump in my yard giving me a gnarly inch long gash.

By the way, my wife was watching… laughing.

So now, not only do I get to stay out of the water for another week, but I have shown myself to be an idiot to my wife. (I knew this about myself)

Pray for me.

Well, it is. And it has come faster than ever. The amount of blogging I do is inversely porportional to the amount of daylight available. If you follow this blog, you know what I mean. Some of you may remember that last Summer my boy was stung by a Man-of-war while out on the surfboard with me. That was near the end of summer and the warm water, so we didn’t get out too much afterwards. And I’m afraid that the winter didn’t dilute his memory of the event.

But this Summer I’m determined to see him through getting back on the board. Friday we went out on the longboard. We duck-dove through a wave and hung outside for a while. He was fairly “complainy”, but OK. We paddled along some of the rollers to get him accustomed to the scene. Then we caught one in on our bellies staying well out on the shoulder.

Overall, he did really well. Hopefully a dozen or more positive experiences like that will get him over the fear and make him a little more comfortable with surfing. I never thought I’d be one of those dads that pushed his children into things, but now I see that there is merit in forcing them to stretch their bounds and teaching them the skills they need to overcome fear. Otherwise the TV is the only thing he may want to do.