20th Anniversary of American Mutt Barks in the Yard: Emigre 68
Emigre published, in 2005, my 35,000-word essay on graphic design.
American Mutt Barks in the Yard | Emigre, Issue 68 | Co-published by Emigre and Princeton Architectural Press | 128 pages | 5.25 x 8.25 | 2005
Download the full PDF at Emigre.
Read it online at Letterform Archive.
THE ROAD TO MUTT
Since 1997, I’d been working as a writer, photographer, and graphic designer for a Detroit automotive vendor, and while I’d always been a writer, I was less skilled in the visual arts. The vendor specialized in exhibits and printed materials: magazines, commemorative books, training manuals, banners, etc.
I worked mainly on magazines and books. To keep my projects moving along, I taught myself photography and graphic design by buying and reading and studying dozens of books and hundreds of magazines. I’d learn new techniques in photography, and I’d scout for new layout templates.
In 2004, I was inspired to write about my self-education in the world of graphic design, and I wrote in a frenzy. Three weeks later, I had written the essay that would become American Mutt Barks in the Yard. It was the first piece I ever wrote about graphic design, the first piece I ever submitted to a design periodical, and the first piece I ever published on design.
SNEAKING INTO THE WORLD OF DESIGN
The publication of American Mutt in Emigre No. 68 in 2005 launched me into the world of design writing. I even won an award for it, the AIGA Award for Design Writing.
Because of this essay, I met well-known figures in the design world over the next several years: Steven Heller, Michael Beirut, Ellen Lupton, Jennifer Cole Phillips, Armin Vit, Liz Danzico, Julie Lasky, Joyce Rutter Kaye, Jessica Helfland, Alice Twemlow, Chip Kidd, Debbie Millman, Felix Sockwell, Randy Hunt, Jason Tslentis, Martin Venezky, and many others. I wrote about graphic design and design culture for the next several years in periodicals like AIGA Voice, I.D., Eye, Print, Design Observer, Speak Up, and many others.
All that writing led to the publication of my collected essays in There’s Nothing Funny About Design in 2009.
In 2010, thanks to Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips, I became an adjunct professor and taught design writing at MICA in their MFA program. I did that for seven wonderful years. Thanks to Jason Tslentis, I became an adjunct professor at Winthrop University and taught seminars and the senior-thesis course in their visual-communications program. I did that rather intensely for three years, and it was a joy.
MORE EMIGRE
After I wrote the essay for Emigre No. 68, I contributed to (and did some minor editing of) the final issue of Emigre, Emigre 69.
Editor and designer Rudy VanderLans, with his wife, typeface designer Zuzanna Licko, had been creating and publishing Emigre, in a variety of forms, since 1984. They made a commemorative book, and I contributed to and was included in that hardcover book, Emigre No. 70 (8.5 x 11, 512 pages). Download the PDF of Emigre 70 at Emigre.
Thereafter, I wrote the text for a few Emigre typeface catalogs. Download the PDF of the type catalog, “Little Book of Love Letters,” at Emigre.
SURFING OPPORTUNITIES
I have long surfed opportunities in my life, but one thing that ties all my eclectic work together is this: writing. I’ve always been writing.
I wrote for newspapers and magazines before, during, and after law school.
My writing in magazines was noticed by an automotive vendor.
Writing in the auto industry led me to learn graphic design.
Learning about graphic design led me to writing about graphic design.
Writing about graphic design led me to publishing a book on graphic design.
That book led me to teaching at MICA.
Teaching in the MFA program at MICA led me to teaching in the undergraduate program at Winthrop. That led me, eventually, to teaching middle school and high school in a private school in North Carolina, which I did for eight years. During those years, I spent my summers writing novels.
And that has led me to today. I’m still writing novels and still looking forward to my next opportunity.
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