There are days as a designer that I want to join the Army. I get frustrated with my creative director, a client, my work, and I start wandering New York asking myself “Why?” Namely, “why does any of this matter? Who cares about my color recommendations, my sub-branding logos, and my witty T-shirt designs? Why doesn’t anyone listen to me? I need some purpose. A cause. Adventure.” It is about this time that I find myself in Times Square, and I make way for the U.S. Military Recruiting Station. If there is anywhere that could inject some adventure in Graphic Design, it is the military.
The Recruiters are very nice people. They have thick necks and awesome handshakes. I feel right at home in Illinois again, with their straightforward sales techniques and crew cuts. It turns out the Army does have a place for me: as a Multimedia Illustrator! “Well,” I humbly ask, scratching my sideburns, “What sort of stuff do I do?”
Without a blink he tells me about my “duties.” (I like the sound of “duties,” rather than “tasks” or “responsibilities,” which are words that belong on a refrigerator job chart). I would be “primarily responsible for supervising, planning or operating multimedia imaging equipment in order to produce various kinds of visual displays and documents.”
Wow. I once worked at a firm called Planet Propaganda, but this is the real stuff. My country needs me to communicate to occupied countries, and the rest of the world about all the good we represent. No more brand identity guidelines for some bank, or some poster for some college art lecture series. This is stuff that makes real impact. Real history. I read through the brochure further.
› Creating illustrations, layouts, map overlays, posters, graphs and charts in support of Army combat and non-combat operations. (Is it bad here to be off register for about an eighth of an inch?)
› Drawing graphs and charts to represent budgets, numbers of troops, supply levels and office organization. (That’s just like an annual report!)
› Developing ideas and designing posters and signs. (I wonder if I can use my hand-drawn lettering?)
› Drawing cartoons for filmstrips and animation for films. (I’ve always wanted to do an STD warning films)
› Performing preventive maintenance checks and services on assigned vehicles and generators. (Huh? Maybe they hook up Adobe CS to Tanks)I kind of like the sound of it. I glance at the good-natured, smiling designer they have depicted on the brochure. He looks alright. He’s got glasses (I mean, what blood-thirsty killer wears glasses? They may not be the vintage Paul Smith frames I see on most designers in the Williamsburg, but it’s a start). He’s wearing camouflage (they wear that also in the Williamsburg!).
Good-natured designer from brochure
But it’s been about twenty minutes now and I am starting to cool down from my frustrations. The Recruiter’s pitch is wearing on me. I imagine myself getting court marshaled for using the wrong typeface, or having to relinquish my �designer hours’ for 5am bugle calls. I am having second thoughts: I like New York. I like my blue jeans. I like my arms and legs.
I leave feeling pretty good. I have a better perspective on what I do. Graphic Design is not just for the “cool” industry—it’s an essential tool for all. If communicating is important, then graphic design is important. Whether it’s winning over the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, or the 18 to 35 suburban male, we’re ready to serve every day.
Jimm Lasser, Esq. (1974- )
On the stormy morning of Sunday, December 9, 1974, Nancy Lasser, wife of Alan, gave birth to a boy. He was born on a bed of poles covered with corn husks. The baby was named Jimm, after Comedian Red Foxx. The birth took place in the Lasser’s rough-hewn cabin in Winnetka near Chicago, Illinois. Alan Lasser was a dermatologist and a farmer. Nancy Lasser had little or no accounting schooling and could not write french poetry. Jimm spent a short amount of time in a log schoolhouse, before graduating from the University of Michigan, Vanderbilt University School of Law, and the Portfolio Center. Jimm attended school dressed in a raccoon cap, buckskin clothes, and pants so short that several inches of his calves were exposed. Jimm earned his first dollar ferrying passengers to a steamer on the Ohio River, and designing T-shirts for the 84-year old James Toast at sharpastoast.com. He was a member of the charter class of John Bielenberg’s Project M, spoke out against the Dred Scott Decision, and has won many decorations for valor in battle.
Just brilliant.
On Jun.27.2005 at 02:25 PM