eyes of the beholder

I love Donald Margulies’ comment about life being too short for The New Yorker. I couldn’t agree more! I am constantly juggling my New Yorker reading with all my other reading. If I read a novel I get behind on The New Yorker. If I keep up with The New Yorker I get behind on all my other reading. It really makes me crazy that they come out with a summer reading issue every year. Since when does life stop in the summer? Do I have more time to read in the summer? No…in fact I’m much busier in the summer, with my garden and my biking, to carve out any extra reading time!

Moving right along….there was a wonderful large graphic in the Times recently (yes, I try to keep up with the Times as well!) about campaign logos. The artist, Ward Sutton, analyzes all the presidential campaign logos for color choice, impact, and overall look. In the last panel, he acknowledges that it is all in the eyes of the beholder anyway. Nothing could be more true. This is a constant challenge for those of us in the visual arts. It isn’t enough if you know your design works in all the ways it should; if the client doesn’t like it (for whatever subjective reason) it is back to the drawing board.