“Those are my Blaas”

I love my Typographic Design teacher! When I first met her, I thought she was a little on the crazy side.

I still think she is crazy, because she is for the most part… but in the most adorable, functional way. She’s about 56 years old, but I would have guessed she was maybe 40 tops.  She is so young at heart and a tiny little adorable woman who always has her hair done 🙂 She has the same fashion sense as I do, and boy is she stylin. We actually came to class one day virtually dressed the same. It was freaky. I almost feel as though we have a scary amount in common, just as far as personality traits, dreams, and interests go.

She has traveled the world, been to some of the same places I’ve been and experienced things that I have yet to experience but plan on doing. Just last week we were talking about traveling and she was telling me about taking her niece abroad and how afraid she was to be alone, while she herself believes experiencing the city alone is something you just have to do for even a brief moment. So she took her to Ireland first because it’s a good place to start in becoming comfortable because a lot of people still speak English. I couldn’t agree more with the need to experience a new place by yourself for a moment, and we both share the same lack of fear when it comes to an adventurous situation like that. She talks a LOT. Matter of fact, we just had over a half hour conversation about food and foreign recipes. She makes all of this beautiful, aesthetic, tasty looking food from all cultures. She is so culturally interested in diversity, just as I am. I go over to her desk and she has all these huge pictures printed of food she has made, and says, “those are my blaas.” I just thought that was really cute and funny. She is also a seasoned wine connoisseur and was sharing all of these cultural backgrounds and tastes with me. I asked what she was going to do with the pictures and she giggled all shy and hid her face in her hands to say, “I’m going to put them in my book.” She has a ton of books that she has made… She has so many secrets… awesome, life fulfilling secrets… about everything.

  

She is an excellent Graphic Designer and only teaches part time at RMCAD because she still freelances for very reputable companies. She has also held jobs as an art director (for those of you who don’t know, thats probably the highest position you can get on the design team for a big company). She has the most fascinating things to say, and very valuable input to give on virtually anything. We both geek out about paper stock, and she’s always really impressed with my book binding. She keeps complimenting me in such beautiful ways. She notices little things about me that I didn’t think were worth noticing and points them out to make sure I know I possess valuable traits. I joined her class late, and she told me that she was impressed with how quickly I catch up and excel beyond her expectations for the class. I have an innate ability to create and understand typography (which I was like, wow. Coming from the typography pro!) It’s apparently pretty difficult for designers to understand typography because they have to take apart the words and characters and view them as pictures to be manipulated. You really have to think outside the box, and many good graphic designers still have trouble with the type aspect. Today I was telling her about a controversial side project I wanted to start, and she said that she loves the way I think. The way I think is what will make me a great graphic designer. Making connections between every day life and turning those experiences into a means for change or social uproar. I can understand how to do those things.

Everything this woman says is gold. I have wanted to quote her so many times! The way she talks about bad type is hilarious. “Oh, that’s wretched.” I think it might just be the way she says it. Or even the way she talks about vegetables at the farmers market (which is just another thing we have in common, a love for fresh organic local food) she was describing the kale in all of it’s different colors and said, “boy do I just want to take those home and put them in a vase.” … which is exactly the silly type of thing I could see myself doing. Putting your vegetables in a vase.

I just adore her. She isn’t married, and she seems to have lived a very exciting life. I just want to know everything about her and thank God that I was able to meet and work with such an inspiring, knowledgable, entertaining, character. Next week is my last week in her class, and while she talks a lot and is a little crazy, I dearly hope we cross paths again in the curriculum!