Designing in the Spaces

Sifting Gems Out of the Daily Grind

I am looking out the window, eyes glazed from too little sleep, at a gray late-morning that is nothing beyond ordinary. From my office perch in the basement, there is not much to see: the right portion of my neighbor’s house and the left portion of the house next to it, some utility apartments lurking yards behind, bramble and weeds choking out what once was fescue in my front lawn, and three telephone wires slicing the scene down the middle. The sky is a dirty blanket, hoarding the much-needed rain without spilling a drop. The house is warmish, but the landscape speaks of a chill that makes me reach for a knit blanket and the boiling pot of tea.

I light a candle, hoping the spiced scent and the gentle jitter of the flame will somehow persuade me into a productive groove. It does nothing of the sort. Instead, thoughts of my plump couch, and the neighborhood cinema, and the freshly-lubed road bike in my garage back the work schedule deeper into the fourth quadrant.

The job tickets are tidily lined up in the PHP queue, waiting for the magic and devotion that each deserve. And here I am, milling around the internet, waiting for the same magic to clock me back to coherence. It is one of those dreaded days where nothing flows freely and much needs to be accomplished.

Sometimes I find thumbing my nose at the project list is the only thing to do. While tinkering with a Saturday project is out of the question, I can always justify a little Photoshop exploration, so I open up the program as well as some random stock photos and start pressing buttons. My only goal is to place colors, textures, and emotions onto the canvas that somehow mirror the doldrums griming up my productivity. I select a washed palette of color and weary textures that seem to call to the ordinary scape outside my window. One click leads to another, and before long a half-hour turns into an hour, and thoughts start to string together into a semblance of coherence that shortly ago seemed so far from reach.

The haunting days with buffets of apathy and overflowing vats of lazy gravy are part of the gig. Anyone can design something when all the pistons are firing correctly; the question is how to dance in the space between inspirations. A true graphic artist is able to embrace the beauty of the moment, however dull it is, and in doing so will find pockets of beauty that look much different from the days of glitter and glory.

The Photoshop file is saved to my desktop, and I glance over my work. My product is not profound or grand, nor would it ever win any design awards. But it is an accomplishment - the first of the day, and now I can move forward.