On my wedding day, as my mom was helping me get dressed, she paused for a moment and said "I can't believe you're marrying a man who doesn't like Salmon."

Well, most days start and finish the same.  Wake up, feed the baby, play with the baby, hand the baby off to Michelle (the amazing) and sit down at my computer where I'll sit until it's dark, and time to feed the baby again, play with the baby again and put the baby to sleep for the night.

However, some days are different.  Well, lots of days are different, but some days are magical. 

Some days, the days that come after my clients send out one of my Save The Dates or Invitations, are rich with anticipation and nerves.  It's the time in between when my client hands off the precious finished product to the post office and the time that the first phone call comes in that is the most thrilling.  I sit, all excited, and wait... wondering, imagining, whose going to call first, whether the design will be loved, cherished and praised, or go by unnoticed.

It's like buying a lottery ticket and wondering for a few short hours whether or not you're going to be a millionaire.  Those hours, or days, in between the purchase of the ticket, and when they read the numbers... it's all about possibility!

Well, as cheesy as it sounds, I do feel like I win the lottery every time my clients call to tell me  about the reactions of their guests.  It is truly the best part of my day.  While I need to pay the rent (my husband will attest!), I definitely prefer to work for accolades and appreciation.  Satisfaction never wrote a cheque to Visa for me, but it makes me feel SO happy to do what I do, to know that when I put everything I have into a project, that it changes someone's day. 

I just finished one of the most fun projects for one of the most fun couples I've ever met.  Their Save The Dates went out on Tuesday and last night, while at dinner, the first reactions came flooding in:

"people are freaking out with glee"

My face lit up, my cheeks and heart warmed simultaneously... it was like getting an invisible standing ovation!

The groom-to-be called, shortly thereafter, to tell me that his mother had been getting calls all afternoon from her friends, telling her that these were the best Save The Dates they had ever seen.

I got an email from the bride-to-be this morning:

"... Really, we need to post a review everywhere. The phone was ringing off the hook last night, punctuated by texts.  People are stunned, and I'm so pumped.  I knew it was awesome, but I kind of forgot how it looks when you see it for the first time."

This is my favorite currency.  And I'm gonna spend it all over town.

 

Well I'm no fiddler on the roof, but I can't think of a better way to sum up what it is I do for a living.

I think if I boiled it down to the very root of what I do, it's to find the perfect design "mate" for my clients.  I have to know my clients' likes and dislikes, their love for certain things, and distaste for others.  I have to know what they find attractive and what they think needs a bit of work.. and then, find the best possible design to satisfy those wants.

It's abstract, I know, but bear with me as I meander down this metaphorical path...

Here's a fine example:

I once had a meeting with a very, very successful business man.  This man asked me to meet him, to show him some of my work, as he was considering hiring me to design some personal stationary items for him.  When I got to his overwhelmingly gorgeous condo, dozens of stories above San Francisco, he told me very specifically that he only wanted to see work that I'd designed that was the color green. 

"What?"

[You probably asked that question the same way I did.]

"What do you mean, JUST GREEN?"  I stammered, I didn't know what to do... I had two green-centric projects but how could I explain to this gentleman that just because I didn't have green projects with me that day, that I couldn't design something custom for him, that would be just perfect, exactly what he wanted.

I tried to explain to him that as a graphic designer, my role is to bring together different design elements from far flung corners of the universe, and roll them, meld them, collage them into a final product that is unique to his specific needs.  "You want green, I'll GIVE you green"!!  Just because I didn't have it in my small portfolio at the time, it didn't mean that it wasn't possible.

I tried to make him understand my process... my methods... I tried to get him to see that this wasn't a "template" sort of situation in which he was supposed to pick a font, and a paper stock, and his name would just appear at the top of a sheet of ivory Crane's paper, engraved in Copperplate Gothic.

But he couldn't get there.  He couldn't see where I was going.  He was stuck.  

And so was I!

Feeling super frustrated, I spent days mulling over this horrendous meeting.  I didn't ever want to be in a meeting like that again... I had no game!  I had no way to communicate WHY hiring a designer is so valuable.  This is nothing like an "arranged marriage" with someone you've never met before... this is a specific process of finding just the perfect typefaces, paper stock, ink colors, printers and vendors, to create the ideal match... I'm a matchmaker.  I can find you the find.  And catch you the catch.  Oh, and make you look GOOD in the process!

One of my clients always makes fun of how detail-oriented I am.  If I miss a space, or there is a comma where there should be no comma, or one tiny iota of the design is off center (for example!) I get bent out of shape.  This OCD behavior, this total and complete LOVE for what I do... this is what makes me the best matchmaker in town.  Hands down!

Now, if only I could start aligning myself with my most favorite Fiddler showtune...