The Designer’s Tale
I trained as a designer decades ago, and I’ve been involved in graphics in some form ever since – as a designer, brand specialist, business owner, marketer etc.
It’s been a time of amazing changes. I worked through them all and I’ve met some amazing people. It’s been a wonderful time so I decided to chronicle the days in a book – and to record the chapters here, on-line, as I write.
Hope you enjoy.
Ian West.
How it all began
“Hey, this kid can’t half draw!”
That was Alan. One of the older patients in the children’s hospital. ‘Older’ is a relative term. He was probably twelve, clad in pyjama trousers and a fairisle pullover. He was leaning over the shoulder of ‘the kid’. That was me. I was six years old and it was my first experience of hospital, waiting to have my tonsils removed. I didn’t know what that meant, but tonsils and appendices were considered unnecessary items that were best removed, in those days.
My parents had thoughtfully provided me with a large drawing pad, coloured pencils and crayons. As an only child, I had an innate drive to fully immerse myself in the worlds I created on cheap paper. They were safe, comforting places.
I’d been wary and a little afraid of Alan. He was the self-appointed cock-of-the-ward. But now I was basking in the spotlight of attention, as a crowd of pyjama-clad kids crowded around my bed, shouting their approbation. In hindsight, this may have been more out of the collective wariness of Alan, than the quality of my artwork, and the ultimate power of the ward-sister soon dispersed them…