My interest in design was sparked by my family’s nostalgic Kodak and Polaroid family albums, Stevie Wonder record album covers, and the color Orange. Specifically that distinct shade of burnt orange that was widely applied in the 70s to velvet couches, kitchenware, clothes, wallpaper, and rotary phones. As a child, I would love to spend hours sitting on the floor, meticulously scanning the pages of our family album. It was filled top to bottom, right side up, and even sideways with beautiful and most times blurry instant prints that captured nothing but happiness. And since these pics were from the decade of the 70’s, I got to see my mom’s look transform from something like the Supremes to London Mod-Squad, and from Black Power to shiny disco.
Our kitchen counters were stacked with orange, brown, and avocado-colored Pyrex bowls and Tupperware containers screen printed with the most unique geometric patterns. Sometimes they were decorated with yellow florals, and other times red roosters. I’d watch my mom season and flour chicken in those. In each room of our house were vinyl records spread across the carpet wall to wall. They kind of record covers that folded out into three or four panels, filled with incredible images that blended bold typography and design with unique compositional layouts. Despite not knowing what graphic design was, I had an understanding that someone made that. Someone unique, possessing a skill I didn't have.
When I was five years old, my oldest brother Daryl, who was 13 years older, gave me a stack of Marvel and DC comics to start to journey into the unknown, as Stan Lee would put it. I had my library comprised of volume issues of X-Men, the Micronauts, Incredible Hulk, the Avengers, Rom the Space Knight, Conan The Barbarian, Ghost Rider, Warlord, Amethyst, and Heavy Metal. And while I vividly remember all of the intricate and interwoven storylines, I also remember printing inconsistencies and dot patterns.
A lot of times the color would bleed over the character lines. Or that the paper stock would yellowed, altering the look of the Hulk, for example, from one page to the next. With closer inspection, I noticed that there overlapping colored dots, easy to spot on the paper used on the inside pages of the comic books, but not so much on the glossier cover paper. Then I examined the printing of Steve Wonder’s “Music Of My Mind”, and Parliament’s “Mothership Connection”, printed on what looked to me like cardboard-colored paper, and I knew I stumbled upon something, but not enough to know the term “graphic design”. But I did know that somebody with a wild imagination had made all of that. That observation, curiosity, and need to make something is what led me to become a designer myself.
