GraphicRiver

austinkleon:

Aim for a Job in Graphic Design/Art by S. Neil Fujita

The book that changed Michael Beirut’s life:

This book changed my life.

I discovered it in the “Career Resources” section of my high school library in Parma, Ohio, in 1974. I loved art but I wasn’t interested in just making paintings. I wanted to do album covers and movie posters. I had no idea who did this kind of work.

Thanks to Neil Fujita, and no one else, I found out that this aspiration had a name: graphic design. I went to the Parma Regional Library on Snow Road and looked up “graphic design” in the card catalog. There was one book in the stacks: Graphic Design Manual by Armin Hoffman. How Armin Hoffman came to mid-seventies suburban Cleveland I have no idea. I asked my parents to get me a copy of my own for Christmas. They splurged and bought me the wrong book. It was Graphic Design by Milton Glaser. Mr Hoffman and Mr. Glaser have Neil Fujita to thank for the introduction. And so, of course, do I.

It’s funny how when we have those “ah-ha!” moments in our lives, a lot of it has to do with naming.

As a boy from small town Ohio, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a “designer” until I got out of college, for crying out loud. I had no clue you could put pictures and words together for a living. I knew of no adults that did that kind of thing.

Sometimes you’re on the right track, but you need to know the names for things.

Thanks to Darby for pointing to the comment.