Design@Work

Gretchen Tatge at her desk, extracting scissors from 2-year old Melissa.

Since I can remember anything, I remember my mom working. She was a photographer and a graphic designer for 30 years. When I was little, she converted one small bedroom into her office, then later built a full-on dark room off the side of the house. My mother worked constantly — at night while we all watched TV together, all day on Saturdays photographing weddings, staying up late into the night processing film and photos in her new ‘modern’ dark room. She and my father — a writer and editor — produced the annual report for the Town of Greenwich for seven years straight in the 1970s.

I don’t remember my mom teaching me a stitch about design or how to do it, but I guess when you’re around something all the time it sort seeps in under the skin…or something. Here I am, decades later, doing exactly what she did and grateful to have gotten the design gene rather than the photography bug. Thankfully, my sister got that one.

Welcome, and Happy New Year! What I love about each new year — and I’m sure most of you’ll agree — is that feeling of fresh start and limitless possibilities. I wake up on Jan 1 dreaming of a blank slate to fill up with work, and fun, (and good food of course). I felt so inspired this year that I decided to finally get this blog — and my thoughts — off the desktop and into cyberspace.

The fact that the calendar has turned 2010 means that I’ve made it five years in business. Five years of working with numerous clients in all types of industries. The main thing you all have in common are: 1) me; and 2) you don’t do what I do! Which is why you hire me, of course. I become especially aware of this when you say things like: “I don’t understand what you just said, but I trust you!” There’s never enough time in the 9-to-5 to do the work and explain it, so it occurred to me that establishing a place where we can discuss these questions virtually would be a great way to go. Business is based on relationships; relationships are based on communication; communication includes words as well as images; thus this blog. I plan on explaining how we work, why we ask you for certain things, perhaps even go into detail on how we figure stuff out. I will also keep you updated on what’s going on at the studio. Hopefully this bridges the gap to bring us to a closer understanding of doing our work ever better. There’s space for commenting at the bottom of each post, feel free to share thoughts, ask questions, or clarify anything I’ve written. I think this online space could be a great spot to get some things straight.

Here we are at the dawn of a new decade — the whole year stretching out before us. What do you want to do?