My Worst Job Ever

3 seemingly unrelated things that help tell the tale of my worst job ever:
 
1st thing: Everyone has at least one job that sucked or that they sucked at. I like to think I’ve managed to avoid most career blunders (although I’ve had plenty of time off from saying ‘No Thanks’ once too often). But desperate times often call for desperate measures, especially when establishing yourself in a modern metropolis like London so… Quite a few years ago now, in order to facilitate a move from Brighton to London, I made the rash decision to put graphic design aside in favour of an editorial role at a place called Purple House. The job was still design related, but this time I was collecting it rather than creating it. I sucked at this. I assumed having knowledge was enough. I didn’t even think about having the call creatives up and ask them to send in work or having to spend days just emailing people back and forth. Asking people you admire for favours was daunting especially when you’re on a deadline. Anyway, I sucked and they knew it. I had to go and 3 months later, in a sort of mutually agreed way, I did. That was my worst job ever and why I never want to work in editorial again.
 
2nd thing: The latest issue of Creative Review is rather good [creativereview.co.uk]. I’m tempted to call it one of the best they have ever produced. After their ‘Month in the Life of a Designer’ featuring Michael C. Place [wearebuild.com], they have just put together an issue focussing on a ‘Month in the Life of a Client’, guest starring Will Gompertz, Director of Tate Media [tate.org.uk/media]. It’s great not just because it features commentary from the many of talented individuals that revolve around the Tate brand such as James Goggin [practise.co.uk] and Non Format [non-format.com] but also because it’s so nice to hear from a client that actually likes Graphic Design. You get the feeling that many clients take on Graphic Design as a personal battle of wills, ignoring the commercial implications explicit in it’s everyday practice. Not so at Tate. There is an acknowledgement that good Graphic Design is a commercial necessity and good Graphic Designers as valid contributors as any other professional. So, if you are feeling down about the whole Graphic Communication thing, read this issue and feel your spirits lift.
 
3rd thing: Purple House was a publishing house set up by Will Gompertz, now at Tate Media. I say ‘was’ because Purple House is no more. Very little evidence of it’s existence remains. It was an odd sort of place that produced lavish and distinctly unique publications focusing on various creative fields. During it’s brief tenure the publishing house produced Zoo Quarterly. A lush, hard-bound, phonebook-sized periodical chock full of creative work from around the world. Expensive to produce and to buy. Zoo Quarterly used to retail at around £100 an issue [amazon.co.uk]. Needless to say, it was a hard product to sell. You couldn’t give it away, it was too expensive, and therefore was hard to get it in front of people to show them what it was about. Purple House’s email newsletters called ‘Newswires’ were much more accessible and radical at the time. But, I guess, email newsletters soon became a pest and not something people really wanted to pay for. Eventually, the publishing house closed and since then a few of the core editorial team members have ended up at places like Creative Review. Deputy Editor Mark Sinclair and staff writer Eliza Williams are both Purple House alumni. Purple House also gave credit to, now well established, creatives such as James Goggin (who designed later editions of Zoo Quarterly) and Hyperkit [hyperkit.co.uk] (who designed the Newswires).
 
So, in the latest issue of Creative Review, the Purple House legacy lives on and I’m again reminded of a job I totally sucked at. Good issue but.