A Designer’s Tale [ENG]
Words and Cover Art: Lino Di Maio| Illustrations: Laura Sauchelli | Italian Version
nce upon a time, in a Kingdom “always” too far away, there was our hero.
In every self-respective fairytale , there is a Bad Dragon, a mission to save a princess and an hero, that, with courage, determination and a pinch of madness, is willing to do anything for an higher cause.
Well, it’s just the kind of that famous fairytale. So, let me introduce you the main characters.
In the Kingdom of Mediolanum, in complex structures, which seems to come from other historical periods- where also the woods are “vertical” –there was a big war:
the battle between communication agency and freelances.
Since the beginning of time, a noble concept was at stake: the Holy Design , with thousand shades, thousand concepts.
There are people who instil it in a throne (Interior Design), those who find it in organized tables of typical grids of “ pixel” ( Web Design), those who study it in amanoid glyph ..and so on.
Something too beautiful, impossible to describe.
Well, a worthy reason to undertake thousands of battles. That’s what happened to Our Hero, unfortunately.
It was very hot in the industrial Mediolanum, when our Hero received a “missive “.
As usual in a fairytale, my dear Readers, there is a Sir with a strange name by an ancient language (digital strategist, account executive, project manager), who assume the responsibility to bring misfortune on behalf of the The Evil, as The Evil in the beginning doesn’t want to show his real face.
Prompted by the holy fire of creativity and feelings hard to understand, our Hero decide to go on a journey to rescue The Design Princess compelled by the The Evil, as usual in the tradition.
Lots of fighters have been defeated over the centuries, few of them were victorious, and even years later “had marks on their skin”.
Now, if you were The Evil Dragon, where would you take the Design Princess ?
Exactly, right there !
At the top of the highest peak of the castle!
A castle, though, that would have scared even the bravest hero, watched over by guards armed with cunning and surrounded by a ditch where flows the river of lies, haunted by weird monsters, hungry for greed and disrespectful of professionalism.
Three days passed by, and -exhausted- Our Hero finally is able to free The Princess.
Now, Design and Freelance are reunited, on their white steed they travel through the lowlands of the reign with the wind in the hair.
Finally they can live happily ever , thanks to the reward and the treasure stolen from the Dragon.
But , NO!
Dear Readers, you have to know that the battle is going to start right now, and after having fight for days in the castle, someone tells Our Hero: THANK YOU so much, now the treasure (and The Princess) is ours, good luck for the next battles!
At the moment that our hero shows his value and his courage, finally appears The Evil and the answer that comes from the obscurity is confusing.
To the question : “Excuse me , but the compensation?”, the response is fuzzy, crazy.
In our fairytale time passes very quick and months go by, everything happens, according to The Evil:
- burned kingdoms (burned servers)
- sirs been killed on the way to send their letters (hundreds of emails in vain)
- loss of memory because of a witch’s course (“I don’t remember you..”)
- diseases which destroy the kingdom
- compensations given to other heroes for other kind of business (wrong credit transfers)
The Hero is lost, he can’t understand where he was wrong, in what he could have been better, and the reason of these injustices.
Oh, wait. It seems that in this fairytale there’s no “happy ending”.
Actually, you can read carefully to see that not only your storyteller is in great shape but with a renewated enthusiasm is here working on this fairytale to talk about this bad story (and this time i’m enthusiast to work for free).
Who is writing doesn’t believe to be different from others of you, that everyday are fighting your battles as freelancers, but this history is a way to invite to hold on, because this our strange world can’t belong to the smart-ass, and for sure, sooner or later, these people will pay.
The moral is very simple, you must avoid places like this!
You have better things to do as an hero, The Princess of Design is in danger everyday, then grab your favorites tools and fight!
Post scriptum: Needless to say, our hero is still trying to receive his compensation.
