The Everyday Designer #26 — From Billboards to Pixels: How My Grandpa's Love For Art Carried Into My Passion for Graphic Design

Introduction

When was the last time you hung out with your grandparents? For me it was last week, and I’m glad I did.

I love visiting my grandparents, especially my grandpa because I know I’ll always leave having heard either a) a new story that he remembered that day or b) a story he loves to tell because its so epic. This past week was one of the latter.

A Billboard Artist (sort of)

He started off by talking about his love for art as a child and how he was always thinking about designing the next big house.

Then he went on to talk about how he used to be a billboard painter, he was the “sign guy” as people referred to him. He would install the signs on the billboards, you and I drive by often. For whatever reason that stuck out to me.

I soon realized how much that artistic spirit was passed down to me, whether it be genetically or spiritually, when my grandpa was telling me that story, it was like i was seeing myself in the past, in another life and that got me excited.

Excited that I carry the essence of my ancestors with me. Excited that I found out where I got my love and desire to pursue design from. To know that the metaphorical “torch” has been passed down to me to keep pursuing creating beautiful art and making the world a more beautiful place to live in.

Architect to artist

My grandpa loves dreaming up new buildings or houses, he always dreams of the day he “wins the lottery” so he can buy that piece of land to build his spaceship castle or his beautiful farmhouse with oddly shaped tents around it. I credit some of my dreaming and thinking outside-the-box to him, now reflecting about it in retrospect.

My family would go camping with our grandparents, and he would always have graph paper and a pencil and would always be sketching up new house designs, and naturally, I would want to design my own. Just the prospect of dreaming up the possibility of such wild ideas was what excited me so much. If I could sketch it out and explain it to someone, it made it so real to me. Anything was possible.

Go Visit Your Grandparents

I read a tweet the other day by someone asking their friend how many times they visit their relatives and how old are they. The friend said “once a year, and they’re in their 70s”. The person responded, “so that means you’ll probably only see them maybe 10-15 more times.”

That made me really stop.

If your grandparents or ever parents are still alive, it is such a beautiful thing to not take for granted. Maybe you have a rough and rocky relationship with them, and its time to be the bridge builder, and be on good terms before they pass. Maybe you just need to bring them some food and share a meal with them. Ask them, heck beg them, to share stories of their lives with you. You’ll be honouring them by listening to them, and in turn, maybe you’ll learn a thing or too about yourself and where you came from.

Thank you 🙏

Recently, I’ve been getting a few of you reaching out personally to say you read these, and I just wanted to say thank you. It really does mean a lot to me that you would take time out of your day, out of your life, to read to the ramblings of a young and naive designer with a love for people and sharing experiences with everyone possible.

If you ever need to talk about anything, I’m just one email, text, or DM away from connecting. You are not alone.❤️

🌊 Currents

While I am increasing the frequency of this newsletter to weekly, I’ll be keeping the currents section of the newsletter to monthly. So stick around for the next time you catch some currents of an everyday designer!

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