A Chance Encounter With This Book

Are you ready for a good story? Of course you are.

My mentor tried desperately to get me to listen to The Beatles. You'd think it would have been a no brainer, but I just couldn't get into them. I didn't have anyone to teach me what good music was when I was a teenager and I grew up on '80's radio...barf! Granted, I did have a love of Boston (second best album cover ever! more on that in a post to come), and I listened to a sprinkling of music that was breaking new ground. For example, I listened to the rise of all girl bands like The Go-Go's and The Bangels. I liked Madonna and loved U2. I even listened to The Smiths. I had a soft spot for Jazz because my art teacher played it in class, but, in general I didn't have a sophisticated music palate. Remarkably, my mentor (who was also my boss) did get me listening to bands like The La's, Dire Straights, The Breeders and R.E.M., but I just couldn't get into The Beatles. Fast forward (gulp!) 33 years to November 2024. I was walking through the library and was stopped in my tracks by this book propped up on the 'New Non-Fiction' table.

My mentor had just passed away the month before and seeing Harrison's photo stopped me cold, because it immediately made me think of my lost friend. I think it was "The Reluctant Beatle" that made me pick it up. I didn't know anything about The Beatles, but why would one of them have been reluctant to be one? I read the inside jacket and was hooked on the spot. I checked it out and my education and love of The Beatles began. I ended up buying the copy you see at a local bookstore, started to listen to The Beatles ALL the time, watched the documentaries, picked up the McCartney book by Philip Norman, and read a half dozen other books including the amazing McCartney book 1964: Eyes of the Storm.

Why am I writing about this? Shouldn't I be writing about Design? Well, that's just it, I am. My chance encounter with the Harrison book has led me to a year of gigantic growth as a Designer. You'd think at my age I'd just be on autopilot and be happy to phone it in and get to retirement. That's not me. I didn't start out with a formal Design education and this made breaking into this profession hard. The beginning of my journey was very bumpy. I had to work harder than my peers. I am convinced that all of that made it possible for me to have the incredible career I've had. But, as I always tell young Designers who I am lucky enough to speak to and to some be a mentor to, you should never stop learning and growing as a Designer. There isn't a Design plateau or peak that you reach and say "I've made it!".

Over the past year, I've done in depth research and study of The Beatles' ground breaking album designs, Paul McCartney's photography (and Linda's) and the song writing. The song writing is where my biggest growth has come from. It's like this; if you read enough about the inspiration, writing and recordings of The Beatles, you discover how absolutley hard they worked and how hard they pushed themselves to grow, discover and get better. It inspired me to do the same with the brand look at NWHSU. It's a good look! I stand behind it and I'm proud of it, but The Beatles showed me it could be better.

In the past year, we rebranded our messaging, added supporting graphics on campus, designed a new set of patterns and icons, redesigned our letterhead, business cards, and support collateral, presentation decks, added gradients to our color pallete, and remodeled our outdated Foyer. All of this was a journey after an initial meeting I called to ask our team, "Where and how can we get better?" and myself saying, "Let's push ourselves!". Teams formed. Meetings scheduled, Budgets set, broken and reset. Brainstorms. Nerdy design sessions (my fav part!). Sketching, sketching and more sketching. Designing. Reviews with peers and leadership. Coordination of project deadlines. Working with vendors to research and use the right materials while staying within budget. Installs. Ribbon cutting. Launch. Communication of it all to the NWHSU community. The result is an amazing remodeled Foyer, updated Style and Message guides, an enhanced campus experience, fresh print collateral, and a heightened social look to compliment the incredible content our Social manager was already doing.

All because I had a chance encounter with a book at the local library. I love you Brendan.