Confessions of a Graphic Designer

My BFF Paula Wong and BTF Krystyn Chong. Photo by The Milkie Studio I've lived in Seattle most of my life and have friendships that span decades. My BFF Paula Wong and I are both sansei — third generation Japanese-Americans. We went to some of the same schools and through different paths we became graphic designers. Knowing each other for 45 years, we've watched our kids grow from infancy to adults. Professionally, we’ve gone from lead type, phototype and Exacto knives, to falling in love with our first Macs more than 20 years ago. In fact, I have Paula to thank for my tech addiction! When she worked for Aldus, Paula gave me a much-needed nudge to switch from traditional to digital design. Having shared history, knowing each another's families, being there to experience and support major life events means we share a friendship with great depth and meaning — a rare gift in an era where life moves so quickly that often all we can do is skim the surface. I th...

Written 5 August 2010 (Note hyperlinks in orange) Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to talk with entrepreneur Ben Huh , of I Can Has Cheezburger , Fail Blog and other memes. When I asked him about his ambitions, he responded without hesitation: “I want to lead a life worth living.” And since that day, his comment has continued to resonate in my mind. Recently our oldest son, Andrew, was home from Germany to spend time with us before his one-year deployment to Afghanistan begins next month. It was a joy for all of us to be together. Whenever he’s home, we make a pilgrimage to Hood River, Oregon , the breathtakingly beautiful place where my paternal grandparents settled after they immigrated from Japan in the early 1900s. As a teenager, Andrew spent summers working in the orchards during the cherry harvest. He is the only fourth-generation ( yonsei ) kid in the family to do so. Beside learning the ways of a new country, my grandparents' early days were physically tough—...

Ben Huh, CEO, Cheezburger Network I was going to write about some of the many innovative companies in Seattle, but when a friend helped me set up an interview with Ben Huh (@BenHuh) fearless leader of I Can Has Cheezburger (ICHC) and other memes, my plans changed. So this piece is all about Ben Huh, the big cheese of a company that makes the world laugh. Questions are in bold. 23 July 2010 — Cheezburger Network, Seattle, WA Everyone has already written everything imaginable about you and ICHC. So I'd like to show you a Dewar's profile and a Playboy bunny interview from 1983. These are the inspirations for how I want to talk with you. I thought this would be more fun. So, is that OK? Fantastic. Dewar's Ad: Community Live Journal ; Playmate interview, Sept. 1983 Playboy So, basically, you’ll be like the Playboy playmate of the month. [laughs] First question—how do you pronounce your name? It’s “Huh.” Some pronounce it "Hugh," but it’s “H...

OK. When I got the invitation, it was a bit like, “WHY?” But on the ticket I was identified as a “Super Cool Person,” so how could I resist attending the Parnassus Group ’s Social Developer Meetup? And even though one of my specialties is getting lost on the east side of the "pond" (Lake Washington), somehow I got there in spite of the dead battery in my GPS! When finally I’d arrived, I looked around at the group assembled and wondered— what is this confab all about? Jason Preston (@jason_preston) VP of Strategy and Product Development at the Parnassus Group In describing it, Jason Preston (@jason_preston) VP of Strategy and Product Development at the Parnassus Group says, “Ever since we started putting together Twitter Conferences in March 2009, we at Parnassus have thought the next wave of digital innovation will be built by ordinary geeks on top of the rich and emerging foundation of social data platforms. All kinds of cool things are being built by lo...

I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited about a new software release as I am about the new Adobe Creative Suite (CS5). Two years ago a friend, one of the software engineers, told me they were working on some very cool things for this release. What an understatement! The new features are unbelievably awesome, and seeing what is now possible made me feel as though my head would explode. The past two days I’ve been on the Adobe campus, learning about the main components in CS5, and today, specific presentations on InDesign. Why the focus on InDesign? Tuesday was the regularly scheduled bi-monthly InDesign Users Group (IDUG) meeting, which coincidentally took place the night before the “InDesignSecrets Print and ePublishing Conference” being held here in Seattle May 12-14. (For a complete list of speakers,) see: Speakers So there were a bunch of heavy hitters in town, and we were lucky to have a few of them share some cool things with us. (Note, there are usually maybe 100 peopl...

I’ll never cease to be blown away meeting tweeps in real life. Thanks to @kirste (Kirsten Mitchell), who told me about the #SM201 conference, I met a ton of people at the tweetup I would otherwise not know—including some of the conference’s top-flight speakers. It was especially fun to meet dynamic afternoon keynote speaker, Chicagoan @williger (Darren Williger), who gave a fascinating, fun and informative presentation spanning the days of bulletin boards (the first engaging social media platform) to the present. He also shared some cool information about tools available that can aggregate all of the social media streams we populate. Also great to connect with were morning presenter @Uschles (Udi Schlessinger), who talked about intelligent tool building; @mikewhitmore (Mike Whitmore) of Fresh Consulting; and afternoon panelist @digitalkvan (Nadia Aly) of Microsoft. Can I just say all of them were just terrific, not to mention friendly and nice? The lounge at the Belcarra Apartme...

OK, I guess I was nervous about attending my first large-scale gathering of tweeps. It wasn't helped by the fact that the same day I had to wake up at 5 AM to arrive in Kirkland to shoot a CEO for an annual report. Driving on the east side is anxiety-provoking enough, but the thought of getting to meet—in real life—people from Twitter, had me feeling like a 16-year-old girl waiting for a new boyfriend to pick her up for a date! The TweetHouse #140 Conference (#140tc) started at 8 AM, and I missed the keynote speech by Mashable's @BenParr, plus a few morning sessions. When I arrived I called my Twitter bud and Huffington Post blogger, @2morrowknight, to let him know I was there, but my call rolled over to his voice mail. So I went to the registration table where @sbroback (Steve Broback) and Kim Larsen introduced themselves to me, and I decided to grab a cup of coffee before venturing into the auditorium. The place was packed. The room was dark. There were laptop...

This interview is part of a larger article to appear in Munster Style, a magazine devoted to Kustom Kulture and vintage rock. Paint a picture of what it was like and what that experience was like for you. Starting in about the spring of 1966, they [Sandy Gillespie and Ron Gardner of The Wailers] asked me if I wanted to go on the road early part of the summer and I said yes. At that time the band had three vehicles. They had a new Ford station wagon that had "Wailers" painted all over the side of it. They had an Oldsmobile — it wasn't a limousine, but it was a great big sedan, and they had an Econoline [van] that also has "Wailers" painted on it. So the Econoline had the equipment in it, the wagon sometimes had the band and more equipment in it, and the Oldsmobile had the band in it. I usually was driving the wagon or the Econoline. Anytime I could be in their car and be seen in it, I would jump on it. One time I drove to Owens Beach, Point Defi...

Or, why does my stuff look different on screen versus on paper? Every designer searches for "truth in color," whether it's finding the right blue to evoke feelings of trust and stability or choosing a green that says a company is forward thinking, environmentally-aware, but also serious, not playful. Recently I was working on a project that was governed by a pre-existing corporate style guide. For those who don't know, corporate standards, graphic standards, brand guidelines and similar descriptors, refer to a document that delineates important aspects of a company's image. Some of the elements it usually addresses include use of the logo; fonts for print and web; graphic elements such as bands and gradients and shapes (such as rounded corners instead of sharp ones); whether the corporate style is to use illustrations versus photos, and corporate/secondary/tertiary color palettes. During the course of working on this project, the client noticed how differ...

For 10 years I would talk to my BFF every day on the phone. We both had our own design practices, both of us are Japanese American sanseis, and we have known one another since before puberty. In 2006 she took a very high-level job as creative director for a hugely popular digital entertainment company, and because her time was now owned by the company, she felt uncomfortable talking to me from work. I felt bereft and mourned about it for a year or longer. Eventually I became used to not having her presence in my day-to-day life. Other friends began to fill the gap, but I often thought about those great years when we spent so much time talking, sharing and bonding. Fast forward to the end of 2008; enter Twitter. I don't mean to turn my blog into another outlet for commentary about social networking, but Twitter actually changed my life. It took hundreds, now thousands of people to replace my friend! During the course of finding my way around Twitter I've seen trends ...

I'd always assumed when I'd met people on Twitter that they were "WYSIWYG" or "what you see is what you get." People who are friendly, intelligent, funny or engaging I would imagine would be very similar in real life. On Twitter, people will either like you or not, so my feeling has always been to be yourself and let the "Tweeps*" fall where they may. Throughout the past year I've developed actual friendships with fewer than a dozen people. These are people I consider in my inner circle, and we communicate outside of Twitter through email, phone conversations, and in some cases have even met in person. Those friendships, as those in real life, are rare, and I treasure each and every one of them. Recently, out of the blue, I received a DM (direct message) from a follower I don't know well, warning me about one of our mutual followers. The information was disturbing. Allegedly, our mutual follower was dangerous and violent, and was want...

We had the most wonderful dog in the world. It's been 2 years since he died, but I still think of him almost every day. I wrote about it at the time of his death, but shared with only a few people. I'm reposting it now. Rusty was lethargic today and had been increasingly off his food. We were unable to coax him to get up and go outside. He had an accident while lying on his bed. His expression seemed to say it was humiliating to soil himself and couldn’t we see that it was time? When Charley got home from school today, the three of us talked and agreed it was. He no longer had the strength or will to enjoy life. It was around 7 PM when he died. Emergencies delayed Dr. Kelly and his assistant Gail. When they arrived, we talked about what had been happening with Rusty — his decline, increasing seizures (2 last week), almost daily incontinence, loss of appetite, inability to stand or walk, and the faraway look in his eyes. They were kind and compassionate and let...

I thought I'd been fired, but it turned out to be an escape Late on a recent Friday afternoon I was left a VOICE MESSAGE telling me I was being replaced. Nice. The new editor of a publication I designed freelance for 10 years couldn't extend the courtesy to tell me directly, and instead had her boss leave the news on my voice mail. The event spurred discussions with people & colleagues in my inner circle, and I learned it's not unusual nowadays to dismiss people via voice mail or e-mail. I'm not sure if it's due to cowardice, lack of respect, laziness or indifference. But whatever it is, it's symptomatic of cultural malaise. A week and a half went by when I received a call from one of my printers, telling me the former client had called and asked for downloads of my files. When the printer informed the client that it was illegal to accommodate them, the client emailed me, instructing me to give my permission to the printer to release the files! As...