09/28/2024
I've always hated 'personal branding'. It always feels cheap and a little pretentious, but it's a necessary evil. The best branding of any kind is always honest branding, and branding yourself sometimes means taking a hard look at yourself.
The most common conversation I've had in the last year around design has always involved a kind of cloud of doom. Partially its the imminent artificial intelligence apocalypse, partially its because I'm getting older and facing an ocean of people in their 20s with more time and energy on their hands. For me, creating a new logo system is more about having an honest conversation out in the open about design and the future. "Memento Artis Graphicae Mori" = "Remember graphic arts must die" (roughly). Because its true, the world is changing radically, even my little part of it.
When I've talked to younger designers I've always found there's this little glimmer of hope in their eye that says "tell me something positive about my future". Well...the truth is things are going to be different, they're going to be challenging, and in the end we DO fail. We all fail. We all get older. We all die. But the secret to moving forward is knowing that this was ALWAYS true for everyone ever born. More forward, find a way, do what you can when you can. Seems like a safe philosophy to me.
