Creative Writing & Graphic Design

I've been blogging a lot this week. Maybe because I feel like I hit a creative block with my last project and I had to keep myself otherwise creatively occupied.

It dawned on me this morning that over the course of the semester I remembered why I majored in magazine journalism in undergrad. It's because I love words. I love writing. More specifically, I love writing about things that mean something.

Over the past several years, writing and designing in the advertising world has left me a little disillusioned with writing and design in general. Let's face it, most copywriting isn't going to change the world, nor is the design that goes with it. It's the writing and the design behind social causes and in literary magazines and books and museums and galleries that makes a statement. That leaves a legacy. And while I love and appreciate stellar ad campaigns (Target and Apple come to mind), nothing about those campaigns really means anything in big scheme of things.

In light of these revelations, I've concluded that writing and designing in the publishing/media industry might be a better fit for me than advertising. I've always been the type of person who felt a strong need to make a difference. I fell into advertising by accident after taking a few classes and realizing I was pretty good at it. Then, I did internships in advertising because they were easier to find than those in publishing/media. Or maybe I was just lazy. Either way, I need to turn this runaway train around and get back to what I love and what matters to me.

This is why I wanted to go to grad school. This semester solidified what I already knew- I love design and it reassured me that yes, I'm good at it. But it did something more- it renewed my love of the written word and it brought me back to where I originally started. And, in this case, coming full circle is a good thing.