I recently realized that today is the 20th anniversary of the first project that I was REALLY proud of — designing The Herald-Sun’s 2003 ACC football season preview section. It’s a long, long way from the work I do these days, and as is often the case, with every passing year of hindsight the rough edges seem ever more prominent. Yet this still holds a special place in my heart and portfolio.
When I look at it now, I probably feel more grateful than proud. Grateful to have had the opportunity to oversee a big project like this early in my career. Grateful to have had the freedom to push boundaries instead of just coloring within the lines. Grateful to have had mentors who shared their knowledge and gave me the confidence to take a big swing. Grateful to have had colleagues who went along with a crazy idea. Grateful to have had bosses who said ok when a junior designer barely two years out of school told them, “I want to turn the cover of one of your marquee annual projects into a comic book … and then I want to do the other 15 pages like that, too.”
I also think about how my career might have turned out differently if they had said no, about the lessons that would not have been learned (or worse, the lessons that WOULD have been learned), about the next job that would not have come my way, and about the things that I would not have discovered about myself professionally and personally from those first couple jobs. I think that’s a big part of why this piece still resides in my portfolio, even if the design might show more comic sans than common sense.
