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Mission to Melrose
We went to LA today to do some research on book binding for a client of Toby’s. He has a job where he needs 100 booklets bound with leather. It’s kind of a tough assignment because the booklets are 12×18 and goat skin doesn’t even come that big. It makes me sad that a poor goat would even have to give it’s whole coat for some silly book that is probably going to get thrown away. It’s for a real estate development and the inside pages will mostly be renderings of something that isn’t even built yet. Hardly a coffee table book to be treasured for a lifetime.
The client has ridiculous amounts of money and he has his heart set on leather. If anybody knows anything about book binding and maybe some way I could find some pleather that looks like chocolate brown goat skin, that would be super cool. Right now, I’m kinda stuck between the cheap venders who want me to cover cardboard with fabric and the high end book binders who are purists who match their hand marbled inner pages with the outer leather that is hand tooled with chiseling based on something out of history. Each book will be made one at a time. It seems a shame to put so much work into something that is purely just hype. But the client gets what the client wants.
Anyway, this research did allow for a fun trip to LA for me. I love LA. Toby hates LA. I saw it as an opportunity to maybe browse some shops on Melrose and a fancy lunch out. Toby saw it as two hours of steering-wheel-pounding-traffic, parking tickets and an opportunity for his expensive camera to get stolen. We have drastically different opinions of LA.
Thankfully after the steering-wheel-pounding-traffic, I found us a great parking spot and we did have lunch at a really cool outdoor cafe that reminded me of Paris. We had sandwiches that didn’t look like sandwiches at all. They were open faced and had delicious things like pesto sauce and sun dried tomatoes on buffalo mozzarella cheese. Toby had roast beef with caper mayonnaise and scallions on top. Toby thought they were really stupid and silly. I think he even used the word, “namby pamby”. I thought they were divine.
Just a side note: The book bindery we went to today was housed in an old mortuary. At first I thought it was a church. It was the most interesting building with old old tiles on the floor and arches that reminded me of a Spanish Mission. There was a giant 30 foot table in the middle of the central room and fancy old chairs with red velvet cushions seated around it. The man who helped us told us that actually the chairs were very cheaply made and they came from the set of the movie, “Gone with the Wind.”
Only in LA…
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Short-timers
In honor of my last day of work today, I slept in and skipped my morning walk to the beach (pictures above are from yesterday). I know, I know. Boo hisss! What can I say? I was tired. Put a fork in me, I’m done. Besides whoorl says she wants to go for a walk in the afternoon instead so that justifies that. (Although, it’s been hotter than dog’s breath lately. We might have to make it a twilight walk if we intend to keep our cool.)
Today is my last day at the “job” and I am soooooo glad. Lu asked if I’ll miss it, just a little bit. And man, right now I could run around my house and scream, “NO! I won’t miss it a bit!!!” That’s sounds really crappy of me because the people I work with are really nice and fun.
Just look at the pictures we took yesterday. It was “Aloha Day” because one of the employees had a birthday! They drank beer at 9 am (I’m so not kidding) and we went out to a two hour lunch at Islands. Can’t get a much funner office than that. How fun is it when there are only seven employees and you can celebrate every birthday with a big bash? I remember those days back at the Junk Mail Factory, before it grew into the monstrosity corporation. Bygones…
So yes, I’ll miss the people. I’ll even miss the work. I do love what I do.
BUT I’m just done with the industry! I’m done, done, DUN (for at least a month anyway). Let me out of advertising! I don’t care if I never see another blueline (wait, we don’t use blue lines anymore!) I mean proof, 11×17 sheet of paper, toner cartridge, mock-up, project request form, photo cost analysis sheet bla bla bla bla BLAH!
Why all this bad attitude about the field that has brought me immense joy and happiness over the last fifteen years? Well, it’s like this: I love being an artist. I love getting a project, becoming inspired and executing an amazing idea. I even love it when my coworkers and clients exclaim how much they like what I do. I’m on top of the world. I love praise. I would wear a monkey suit and tap shoes and do a little dance every day if I was guaranteed unending praise. I just work like that. (Which is why I love blogging.)
But then comes reality… like a big ol’ sledgehammer squashing my ego on a daily basis. The client wants to tweak this, the account manager wants to bold that, the boss wants to include this and that and the other thing and hey can we fit this in too? And then the sales guy pipes in, “Can you stay late and get this done by yesterday?” Before you know it the design, that I was so proud of, no longer exists. Sure, I fight for my work. I stand up for what I believe in as a designer but it wears me down. I know this is part of working as a team and I know that often the end result IS actually better… BUT I hate the process. I hate coming home from a work day feeling degraded and disrespected. I hate it that after I make the changes and I think my project looks like crap that nobody but me knows the difference. I hate doubting my own (and others) taste. I hate having to keep a smile and say “Of course, that sounds like a great idea…” when actually I want to cram my mock up in the trash and run out of the office crying.
I think I’m ready to quit this gig and go work for the most high maintenance client of all: my baby.
I know, jokes on me.
In my next life I want to be a cake decorator.
