Know When to Hold ’em
Below, I am sharing my most recent work, a cover illustration I did for American Entomologist Magazine. I was genuinely thrilled with how it turned out and the response it has garnered from the readership. The association staff and I have received many compliments on the cover design. It’s joyful to work with such a collaborative and supportive publications team at the Entomological Society of America. Designing this issue was also a tremendous opportunity to read about some very forward-thinking topics: Art, Queerness, and Expression in Entomology and Anti-Asian Racism: Uprooting Biases and Moving Forward. I look forward to designing the next issue, which looks to have equally interesting topics.
When all the stars align on a project, it is truly magic.
And when they don’t—it’s not—which refers to the title of this post.
I generally have lovely relationships with all of my clients, but I recently had a new one go a bit south. Cue the Kenny Rogers lyrics:
“You’ve got to know when to hold ’em
Know when to fold ’em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run…”
Something was not clicking. The work was interesting enough, a 50th commemorative issue for one of their programs. However, something was quite off with communications, and I was not getting their “vision” for the publication. One of my main goals when working on a project is: To better the lives of my clients through thoughtful, collaborative, and creative design work. It is time to evaluate the relationship when confidence in abilities and mutual respect are not there (or severely lacking). My frustration with their processes and some of the organization’s people on board grew, and my client felt it, too. We amicably parted ways. It left me feeling a bit “off” for the rest of the day, but in the end, I was honestly happy to shed the weight of this project. I found myself practicing gratitude for the gentle reminder that not everyone has to like me or my work.
I wouldn’t say that I “ran” from the work. We all calmly put down our pencils and walked off into the sunset.
We went in different directions, of course.
