i look back on most if not all of my work from school and think, “this is pretty bad.” not that i didn’t learn, or that my professors were inept. infact, i’d like to take this moment to thank them for being as gracious to me as they were, poor as my work was. but i guess they saw something in me or my work that compelled them to allow me to pass my sophomore evaluation, and i actually just saw it myself.

this past weekend, my wife and i were cleaning out the closet, and i came across a portfolio of a whole ton of my work from college. why i hadn’t chucked it yet, i don’t know. i mean, i only ever look at it when we’re cleaning out the closet, and i always think, “why haven’t i chucked this yet?”

well, this time, i did. chuck it that is… except for one piece, this piece you see above (click it for a larger view).

this was the final project of the second semester of composition theory class, senior year, 2004. for the project, i had to choose a theme, select objects related to that theme, make abstractions from the objects and compose them in a work (my theme was st. louis, by the way). during this project was when the light came on.

it’s no magnum opus by any stretch of the imagination, but looking at it now, and remembering my thought process at the time, i can say with out a doubt, that this is when i got it. this is when all of the pieces of the puzzle came together for me. this is when, i, dailey crafton, became a graphic designer.