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Julia’s life story
I was desperately trying to remove lice from my kids's hair, for the fourth weekend in a row, when my twin sister Ellen called to tell me that she had posted a new book idea on her web site. I had just finished my contributions to Ellen's book, D.I.Y: Design It Yourself (Princeton Architectural Press, 2005), which she had co-produced with her graduate design students at the Maryland Institute College of Art. I am an English professor, not a professional designer, but I've been an amateur designer for years, beginning with a drawing table and t-square in the 80's, and going increasingly digital ever since. When I finally freed my hands up long enough to read her proposal for a project called Design Your Life, my whole being sighed. As I looked around me, I saw piles of books and papers everywhere. My four kids (an eight-year old and five-year old triplets) had a case of lice that I seemed unable to beat. My sister, with her two talented, stylish, and well-behaved kids, her beautiful urban house, as well as her graphic design career, could design her life, and write a book about it along the way, but not me. Feeling downright lousy—trapped, incompetent, and haunted by lice—I began to cry. It took me several hours to gather my energy and call Ellen to wish her luck on her new project. In the months that followed, I began answering her calls with the by-line, “Design your life,” often against the cacophony of kids. I meant the line as a joke, a rueful commentary on the deep disconnect beween Design and My Life. Design, after all, evokes minimalism, the marriage of form and function, a touch of stylish hipness afloat an underlying classical permanence. My life, on the other hand, is hardly hip, as I struggle to manage a sprawling suburban household and a calendar of multiple professional deadlines, with a set of housekeeping skills that fall far short of exemplary. More often than not, however, when Ellen called me, I was doing design. I had set up a lap top in our family room, equipped with progams for web design (Dreamweaver), image manipulation (PhotoShop CS), and page layout (InDesign). Sometimes I was working on my own web site, www.ThinkingWithShakespeare.org, which I use for my college courses and research. Sometimes I was working on web sites for friends and family. Or I'd be working on an invitation for a neighbor’s bat mitzvah, or a party concept for my kids' birthday party. Or maybe I'd be supervising my own kids' design -- perhaps a set of drawings that we'd photocopy onto iron transfer stock or make into a web page. Meanwhile, I was noticing that the women around me were doing design, too. One friend wanted to open a chocolate shop and was working on a graphic identity and business plan using desktop tools. One of my students had ventured into “altered books,” the grittier, edgier corner of the scrap-booking movement; a talented web designer as well, she was documenting these one-of-a-kind objects on her new site, itself designed using collage techniques. Another friend and her sister were taking their love of sewing and fabric into a scarf-making business; I was thrilled when they asked me to help design a logo, business card, and web site. Gradually I began to realize that I was designing my life, and that many other women and men were embarked on similar paths, thanks to changes in technology, a heightened sense of design among consumers, and the rise of DIY workshops, magazines, and communities. Ellen brings a whole set of professional design skills and contacts to this project. She is in an extraordinary position to translate key ideas from modern design theory and practice into concepts applicable to the everyday lives of contemporary women and men. I bring the point of view of a genuine DIY-er, a passionate amatuer who has discovered in design the chance to increase productivity and pleasure in my life and in the lives of those around me. The first step is building this blog. Design-your-life.org is designed to provide a public space that can build a community, develop a vocabulary, and generate a database of narratives reflecting the range of ways in which women and men, adults and kids, are using the digital arts to design their lives. We want to know who you are, what you're making, and why. © Julia and Ellen Lupton, 2005. All rights reserved. |
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