The Glorious Middle
In the messy middle of all of it
I love finding myself in the middle of a design project. The point after I’ve pushed through initial procrastination and past early phases of missteps and failures onward into the glorious middle. Before you can see the finish line. Before you’re coasting. Before it’s all about bringing it home. And if you’ve done your work in that glorious middle, what you’re bringing home is worth telling your friends (and enemies) about.
If I could pick a spot in the creative process to live in forever, it would be the middle.
The middle also happens to be where I’ve lived. Forever. Far from the coasts. Between oceans and mountains, my homeland is the heartland. The great plains. The Midwest. Nebraska, land of the flat water, big skies, and wide open spaces.
My legislative district is blue, my congressional representation is purple, and my state is red. In the city of Omaha, we’ve had both Democrat and Republican mayors over the years. Just down Interstate 80 about fifty miles, in the capital city of Lincoln, we’ve had solid Democratic leadership for the last decade, alongside Republican governors going back longer.
Both Omaha and Lincoln have seen enough growth and investment to feel like we’re in the middle of something special. That we’re moving into the future. Maybe not as fast as some of us would like, and much too fast for others. In the middle of a constant debate about which side is right and which side is an asshole.
I live in a midsize city. The Greater Omaha metro area has a population of 1.3 million. In the top 100 US airports, we’re in the middle tier in terms of busyness. In the city itself, I live in midtown, a collection of historic neighborhoods transforming themselves into the 21st century in a variety of ways. Some cool, some not so much.
Against that backdrop, I’ve made my career, which I feel like I’m very much in the middle of. From a very quick run inhouse at a university, to several years of agency life, to coming up on a decade of being independent. Now, I’m looking to extend this glorious middle as long as I can, before I start the coasting I hope to be able to do in the twilight of this design life. I’m hoping, as a designer, to get just as much done in my forties as I did in my thirties. Working smarter in midlife, not harder. Using whatever this career expertise is, in the most productive, rewarding ways. Still looking forward to being exhausted when the weekend roles around.
Midlife. It’s quite a thing. Life half over, with half still to do. Hopefully. As a cloudy optimist, my outlook is mixed. Sad so much has been lived, glad I’ve actually made it this far, and vigilant about what’s to come. Without too much anxiety or excitement. Middle of the road. I hope to find you, the reader, right there with me to take in this story.
A story of doing good, the importance of principles, making projects happen, work/life balance, doing it yourself, and keeping it weird, told through a career in graphic design. I want to tell a story about how you can use a design career to engage with life on every level — in your community, with the arts, in technology, business, civics, politics, education, and so on. This isn’t separate from life, it’s right there in the messy middle of all of it.
In the middle of my career, in the middle of life, in the middle of a country caught in the middle of constantly working itself out. In the middle of everything. Yes, the middle seems like an appropriate frame for the purpose of this book, when you’re moving at a good clip and aren’t slowing down any time soon.
With that, let’s get to it.
Essay 1/15 from my new book, a design monograph (maybe manifesto?) entitled In the Middle of Everything.
