Sellout

I got this book when I was 11.

Around this time, there seemed to be a lot of similar science fiction artwork books, packaged as some kind of "guide to the universe." I ate them up.

One thing about this particular book is that it contained not only tons of full color paintings, but also an array of fictitious printed items and logos. These included logos for interstellar airlines, such as Pan Galactic and Aurora-Magellan. Also, interplanetary customs forms, tickets, passports, travel brochures, menus, all kinds of stuff.

I loved the all of these. The designs, layouts, typography, and, oh, those logos. I thought they were so cool. I used to redraw many of these with pencil and markers. This was years before I would ever learn the term graphic design.

Around this same time, I also remember having a lot of Nasa stickers. These were of insignias for various Apollo, and later Space Shuttle, missions. Growing up across the street from the Johnson Space Center ("Houston, we have a problem"), and with several of the neighborhood dads being astronauts, you tend to end up with these things. Anyhow, I really loved those designs as well. There are more examples, but I'll stop here.

I was thinking about this lately, and I just had the urge to give a big F*CK YOU to some of the a**holes/b!tches at my college.

I'm referring to those who tried to make me feel like some kind of sellout for declaring Graphic Design as my major for a time. Some expressed their disappointment in me, others made snide comments and smirked down on me.

I ended up getting my degree in Illustration, but the point is this: I never aspired to be a fine artist. My major inspirations at a young age were comic books and sci-fi/fantasy book covers. Later, movie concept sketches, sci-fi/space-related graphic design, and later still 60's gig posters and 70's album covers.