From Pan Searing to Pixel Pushing.
I recall falling back into my desk chair and staring at the walls of the administrative offices in the basement of The M Hotel in downtown Denver. I remember how tired and frustrated I felt as I tilted my head and scanned the office bookshelves, slowly reading the spines of various sacred culinary bibles that my boss and I had erroneously collected for private dinner inspiration but never actually opened. I imagined pint-sized versions of Picard, Adrià, McMillan & Morin and particularly Bourdain walking out of their respective covers and looking down at me with disappointment from the shelves. In that moment, as I daydreamt of making art and cooking something off menu for once, I came to the realization that I hadn’t truly been creative in a long time. I recognized how starved I was for inspiration and decided to rent an apartment in Montreal for three weeks.
I spent my time in Montreal eating bagels and visiting every museum and art show that we could find. We took a pilgrimage to Joe Beef and Au Pied de Cochon, and at the time I was so stressed out and uncontrollably anxious, a small part of me thought I would actually keel over in Canada. After what was probably the last bite of fois gras I’ll ever have, I had the epiphany that my life as a chef was over, not life itself, and it was time for a career rebirth. We visited great exhibits focused on design and I sketched as much as possible. I quickly became obsessed with the various signage and typography unique to the streets and buildings of the Canadian metropolis. I recalled a similar spark of interest and fascination while previously roaming around Paris and Manhattan which led to the discovery of kerning, leading and hierarchy. At some point on this trip I began seeing the world through the lens of a designer for the first time, a remarkable transformation that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
I returned home with a fresh and fiery passion for all things design and built a new computer as soon as I possibly could. I would need to begin self-education and learn the tools of the trade. After the computer came the Wacom pad, a Creative Cloud subscription and so many great books. I discovered Paula Scher and Michael Beirut at Pentagram as well as Chip Kidd, Milton Glaser and someone who became a role model and immediate pal, Aaron Draplin of DDC. Draplin was one of the first graphic designers that I truly connected with and related to. Through his Skillshare courses, Ted Talks and YouTube videos I learned so much as an aspiring designer. He literally taught me how to use Adobe Illustrator and made the difficult task of working in a new software seem easy. Aaron also taught me how to think as a designer and the importance of simplicity and friendship within the design community. He seemed like the type of person who would walk right up to a stranger and give them a hug and when I met him a year later at MondoCon, that’s exactly what he did. He took time out of his day to listen to my story and he told me about how similar his journey was to mine at that point. He demanded that I continue working hard, that I enjoy the journey and that the sacrifices would pay off and I remind myself of this daily.
Meeting Draplin motivated me to keep my momentum going and learn as much as possible. I finally started to feel like I was at the tipping point and could call myself an aspiring new designer instead of an ex-chef. I enrolled in the visual design program at ACC and started focusing on human-centered and user interface design which has become a strength and passion of mine ever since…to be continued.
