The other day I went to a printer shop on the west side of Manhattan to do a press check for the magazine that I produce and design quarterly, as part of my job as a senior designer for a financial firm. This means that I check that the main color matches the previous issue, that there is no text missing, that the portraits of the managing directors look crisp, and that the typography is legible, among other things before they go ahead and print the full run of 25,000 copies. I was sitting in a comfortable room with a computer where I could surf the web whilst waiting for the press sheets to come out, so I could approve the colors and get back to my office when done.

At some point, I heard a bunch of young people coming into the room. Usually it is very quiet with only a few press-men and sales representatives walking by. Normally, I would have just continued checking e-mails and minding “my own business” or being shy. But something quite unusual happened, I got curious and I found myself asking someone who seemed to be the teacher leading this group of young students if it was a design class and from which school. He explained they were students from Pratt Institute and he had brought them to learn about the printing process. “What a coincidence” I thought, “I also went to Pratt”… And without much thought I told him that I had graduated from the Communications Design Masters program in 1998 and that now I worked for a financial firm designing their publications… He asked me if I could talk to his students about my professional experience.

(more…)

(From the blog “Floating on Water“)

Last weekend, I took an amazing letterpress workshop at Sesame Letterpress with Breck and Matt, and I designed and printed the muchas gracias cards in pink using their letterpress! The circumstances in my life that particular weekend were a bit funky. I was very worried because I was waiting for some test results from the doctor - I went to Mexico on the Labor Day weekend and thought I had caught a bad parasite while eating tacos. So I had the perfect setting to cancel my life, not go to the workshop and pout and whine all Saturday. But thanks to Transformation and what I have experienced with my friends from that community, I got myself to DUMBO (down under the Manhattan bridge overpass, a very cool neighborhood in Brooklyn) where Breck and Matt’s lovely studio is, and started working with what was in front of me… I had a blast!

(more…)

(From the blog “Bright-Eyed Life“)

At this past week’s Monday Night Alive, a successful young actor in the group began to speak about how when he gets a new acting job, he “puts his foot on the brake” in order to balance his life out. And if I remember correctly, sort of as a reward to relax for having gotten a solid job. Ariel & Shya told him how that’s the point in time when he should be putting his “foot on the gas” and not on the brake. He should line-up a new job for after his run of shows. The Kanes then asked “how good are you willing to let it get?” Meaning how successful will you allow yourself to be, without dimming yourself down to fit in with others? To allow yourself to shine brightly, regardless of those who might try to bring you down, because they are jealous, competing, or afraid that you will leave them behind. This is why a support system of those who can be honest with you about how you are being, and are there to really support you when others might aid you in diminishing in your greatness, though they don’t do it intentionally. I love the phrase “you can’t do it alone.” Boy, how I do wish I that I could do it all on my own. I naturally want to be independent and do it all by myself. Thing is that is a lonely way to live I’m finding. It’s easier and more fulfilling to allow myself to be supported, and to support others. It makes things feel effortless.

(more…)