Designer on Display: A View into the Designer's Natural Habitat

Left: a look into the art room at my work station from the hallway. Center: me,
looking outside my window at a visitor. Right: the visitor looking back in at me.

Compared to many people I have a pretty nice office. It's large, open, is pretty comfortable, has pretty much everything I need to produce promotional materials for the library system, and has a nice view to boot. 


It's not only for me, however. The department is open to share with other staff members who may need to use the staff computer or other supplies the art room offers. Some visitors are entirely self-sufficient and start working on whatever they need to do, while others like to bounce an idea off of me in order to explore creative or production ideas. Everyone is free to come and go as they need, and I never know who will stride through "my" door at any time. 


Some days the art room is a veritable hub of activity, filling up with a couple of staff members, volunteers, or even a pre-school tour group. Other times, all you might hear is the clicky-clack of my keyboard as I work alone. Either way. I'm happy to be there.


Due to the arrangement of furniture in my office, it hasn't gone unnoticed that many people know me better from the view of the back of my head rather than the front of it. My door has a slender glass window in it that allows people in the hallway to look in as they pass by--completely unknown to me because I'm usually busy working on my computer, looking in the same direction they are. Occasionally, I'll meet someone who'll say "it's nice to finally meet you and to know what you look like from the front"...and we have a good chuckle over it. It reminds me though of how we used to look at animals in the zoo from the other side of a glass pane--only now I'm the one on display. Now, visitors could "watch the designer in his natural habitat."


One morning this week when I came to work, I entered my office, started booting up equipment, and went around the room opening up all my floor-to-ceiling blinds as I customarily do. While opening the last blind, I saw a young cat standing with his paws up on the window sill looking through the window at my legs. I leaned over the top of the office desk in front of me and peered down to see the cat looking up at me. We exchanged looks--both curious as cats--wondering what each other was doing on the other side. Then, we both went back about our business.


I couldn't help but to think: at least we got to see each other from the front side this time!

The art room and design department. Top left: a look at my work station. 
Top, middle: looking along the length of the large work table toward the far end of the art room. 
Top right: the stash of paper sheets and rolls. Bottom left: the supply cabinets and general 
staff computer station. Bottom, middle: looking back over the work table toward the computer 
and printer area. Bottom right: the Ellis press and letter blocks for cutting out letters.