Ready...Set...Shango!

Why is being a graphic artist such a cool job? Well I am glad you asked....

Sometimes I am sure it seems like I complain a lot about working too much, how hard it is to come up with new and fresh ideas all the time, what a pain in the ass it is to run your own business (in Buffalo, New York), etc. etc. But truth be told, I have a really cool job! I don't mean to brag, but this is fun.

Why Being a Graphic ARTIST is Such a Great Job.. Ready, Set....

10) Get to be your own boss!
Sure it sounds like a cliche. But it really is a great thing. I do have to answer to a lot of people-clients, but on my own time. I never absolutely have to, have to be somewhere if I don't want to. I schedule the meetings within my schedule (and as well, theirs). I don't like Monday morning meetings- I simply try not to have them. period.

09) No Suit or Tie.
Now there are graphic-guys that never wear a tie ever (but there are also some home contractors that don't wear one either). I seldom do- certainly not every day. But when I do wear the 'business get-up', it is because I am visiting a client and I want to dress up. I still get to were funky ties if I wanna...

08) Get To Work When I Want.
OK, we keep 9-5 business hours, but I cut out at 4:00 PM most of the time. I can be late to work if I want to. We can get up and go to the park, go to a store and basically leave whenever we want. Really. We plan our vacations 'not around anyone else's'.

07) Music and Design Go Hand in Hand.
Graphic design has always lend the striking visually identity to music. I am also a DJ and mixing records together is a lot like designing and adding snippets of this idea with that idea. So I have done a lot of CD and cassette packages, rock band posters, DJ posters-- I have met a lot of bands, gotten into a lot of shows for free, free drinks, and some of my good friends are musicians.

06) Got to Go To Art School.
Now going to art school is really a cool thing when you are in your '20s-- beats calculus and pre-med, if you ask me. Now I went to Buff State-- and it isn't Parsons or NYU-- but it had a great program and I got to hang with a lot of cool punk rock, goth, hiphop, rasta type dudes. Out of the ordinary type people, you know. When I went to school we were not designing at all with computers, so it was a lot of craft learned, hands on type stuff. Really great.

05) Technology Is My Friend/My Enemy.
Being in this field, in this era of design, it is all about the MAC- my friend, my enemy, my muse, the devil, an angel. I am not a techie guy by nature, haven't played any video games well, since they were called Arcade Games- think Centipede, Millipede, Asteroids or an occasional Video Golf. But using this computer tool everyday has forced me to be in tune with the technological side of this world. Not a bad thing to know.

04) My Office Is Allowed To Be Messy.
They say a clean desk is the sign of a sick mind.... but what do they say about an office filled with newspaper clippings, stickers, little plastic toys, cards, posters, buttons, vintage computers, piles of notes, sketches, print outs, screenshots, pencils, markers, signs, photos, ticket stubs, t-shirts, illustrations, stamps, comic books, paper sample swatches books, CDs, magnets, postcards, snapshots, flyers, magazines, dominoes, books, action figures, magazines, coupons, coffee cups, folders, papers, autographed album covers, reviews, games, plants and hockey pucks.... eh?

03) Creation- it's a beautiful thang!
To come up with something new out of something old. To design a corporation's entire visual identity out of some typefaces and some lines and fill. Building things by adding, subtracting, meshing, merging, crashing, smashing, balancing, coloring and scrathing with a pencil-- This is a good thing to be able to do for a living.

02) I can kinda draw.
I have always drawn things, colored thing (usually with purple), sketched things-- superheros, naked girls, cars, band logos, faces, scribbles, doodles, and park picnic shelter carvings... and I turned this into a career? Oh Boy! Sometimes it is baffling. Plus when you can kinda draw, you can easliy entertain your kids with the magic of art.

01) ART RULES!
It is really 'graphic ARTIST' ya know? 'Doing art' is way cool and a really smashing way to make a living... don't cha think?