"Draw a crazy picture. Write a nutty poem. Sing a mumble-gumble song. Whistle through your comb. Do a loony-goony dance across the kitchen floor. Put something silly in the world that ain't been there before." -Shel Silverstein
At the age of seven, the world seemed to be a more manageable place, or at least that’s how I remember it. After all, if the anxiety of having your younger sister step on your newly assembled Lego castle matches that of a global financial meltdown, things are pretty good, right? We’ve all had that hazy, nostalgic fever brought on by the aging process. And for me, last October when I started at Capstone, I felt it once again. I felt old—really old.
I soon discovered that working on children’s books would be this old man’s obstacle. Have I really been that far removed? What happen to that seven-year-old that turned every blanket into a Superman cape, every corduroy coach cushion into a stepping stone surrounded by hot lava, and every fallen stick into a warrior’s saber? After my first day, I remember thinking, “Maybe it’s time to turn off C-SPAN and see what’s on Nickelodeon these days.” And so I did. In seeking out design inspiration, I would have to rethink everything. It was not long before I begin my bookstore adventures at the back, starting with the kids’ section and slowly working my way forward to the “Best-Sellers.”
Working at Capstone really has rekindled those early, ephemeral memories. And I welcome it wholeheartedly. Not in an existential Peter Pan Complex kind of way, but more in those everyday subtle reminders that allows you to reshuffle the days’ trials and tribulations to a kinder, gentler understanding of time and place—that restless curiosity can never be wavered. And now at 27, I realize the craving for fruit snacks may have been replaced by sushi, but these “Man of Steel” underpants aren’t goin’ anywhere.
Russell Griesmer
Graphic Designer