nowhere leads to somewhere

Today, Pittsburg State University had a very special visitor. Brendan Murphy, senior partner and designer at Lippincott in New York City came to speak. Murphy is considered by the school and myself to be an "outstanding alum" and I was very happy to get to hear him speak about his experiences in the graphic design field.

I was inspired by Murphy because while I know I'm receiving a fantastic education in graphic design at Pitt State, I can imagine that people from NYC may not necessarily see it the same way. Murphy has proven himself through his abilities, (which he learned, or at least set a strong foundation for, at Pittsburg State University) not his diploma. I was also inspired by his thesis project for his Master's at Cincinnati University, where he redesigned the handicap symbol. While speaking today, he emphasized that the logo should represent "access" instead of "handicap." I felt that it was inspiring that such a seemingly small update to a symbol we see every day could make a difference to a mobility-impaired person.

I think of myself as a lifelong learner, and today was definitely a great opportunity to expand my knowledge of graphic design and "the industry." The most helpful portion of Murphy's presentation today was when he spoke in detail about all the steps in branding or rebranding a company. One very interesting thing I learned was that, in the development stage of creating a logo, anywhere from three hundred to three thousand ideas are sorted through to find only one logo that makes the cut.

Murphy was also full of helpful advice such as the following:
     •   Have values
     •   Relate to people
     •   Nowhere leads to somewhere
     •   Anytime there's change, there will be opposition