If you analyze anything long enough, the reasons why it is both trivial and special will present themselves.  So why bring up the trivial and the special when talking about graphic design?  Well, quite simply, in a broad sense, art is trivial.  Anything that is expressed visually can just as easily be said verbally or textually.  However, if you look beyond the “message” of a picture, you’ll see that much of the artistry is found within how it was created; similar to the old adage, “it’s not what you say, but how you say it.”

I think the coalescence of the trivial and the special is a rather strong metaphor for life in that it’s a paradox – microscopically intricate in every aspect, but with no overarching purpose that is capable of encompassing it all.  If you think about the structure of a painting, it is rare that every brushstroke has its own meaning.  While some give the idea being expressed shape, many merely serve to fill in space. 

Despite this, if you were remove those seemingly “meaningless” strokes, you’d be left with a lot of empty space and you wouldn’t end up with the same picture that was there originally.  Similarly, if you removed those moments of your life that seemed pointless, you would be left with something quite different.  That’s because while the trivial seems, well, um...trivial, in actuality it’s the difference between what is said and how it is said or, in this case, how your life ended up and how you got there.

The nice thing about art is that the artist is usually around to determine for himself if what he’s created is trivial or special.  The sad part about life is that it’s the people that surround you that ultimately get the chance to say how trivial or special the life you built was.  The odd part about both is that the trivial and the special are different for everyone and what one person might find pointless might mean a whole lot to someone else.  

In the end, you can only control that which you create and you can only control a life that you make your own.  So really, the whole overarching idea that this trivial/special paradox encompasses is that if you focus on filling your life with moments that are special to you, it really won’t matter if anyone else finds it trivial.

…Oh yeah, my background encompasses graphic design, film, writing, public relations, and marketing.  I graduated cum laude with a degree in Communication Arts from Ramapo College.  Also, one time, I ate a penny.