Sunday, July 09, 2017

the approval of an expert

My brother David works in the creative department of his company—we'll call it Rumpelstiltskin*—in Washington, DC. His company is a PR firm that creates materials for various private and public organizations, including the federal government. This often means creating videos, flyers, and other material meant for broadcast and/or distribution. David is part of a team of "creatives," as they're called; in his case, he's the jack-of-all-trades tech guy, and he has created plenty of videos featuring live action and animation. David selects music tracks, edits video for pacing and logical sequencing, finds actors, adds animation and other special effects, and responds to most of the other technical demands of video-making. David's team includes other creatives who are good at things like art, writing, and graphic design.

One of David's coworkers is a Russian graphic designer named Nat. Over Skype the other night, David told me he had shown Nat the graphic design I had recently blogged (here), and he said she loved it. I told David I was gratified to get validation from a real expert, especially since I'm no pro at design, but I also told David that he should have simply shown Nat the picture without saying it had been done by his brother. That way, she'd have given a more honest opinion. But David reassured me that Nat is actually a fairly blunt sort of person who doesn't pull punches, so the opinion she expressed was sincere. And now that I've been to David's company's website and seen a picture of Nat for myself, I think I'm in love.

Anyway, cool: my design aesthetic makes sense to someone, at least.



*In case you don't remember, Rumpelstiltskin is an imp who helps out a miller's daughter by magically spinning straw into gold to satisfy the cruel king who has imprisoned the girl. This story is probably also the origin of the modern joke about demanding someone's firstborn child in return for a favor or a service. Anyway, just as Rumpelstiltskin magically gets things done for others, David's company also magically gets things done for those it contracts with.



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