No longer my own boss

Well, as of Monday I’ll be working days for someone else.  I’ve agreed to work for a local signmaker, designing business signs, car wraps and other promotional artwork.  I’ll have access to some great tools – a Roland plotter, diecut vinyl printing, large format plexi and decal printing and so forth.  It’s a small shop, not far from home, with a nice crew.  I’m looking forward to being in a deadline driven position again.  Its nice sometimes to have someone else cracking the whip!

To that end, this weekend I have to launch ancient versions of Photoshop and Illustrator – the shop is still on CS2, and I’ve been working exclusively in CS5 since the beta testing started over a year ago.  It’ll be strange losing some of the terrific workflow tools the newer version offers.  It’ll also be interesting to see just how patient I am with their old computers and slow processors. 

Last night I taught part two of a bookbinding workshop at Cochise College.  In part one, last Wednesday, we covered the coptic bookbinding process, and the participants each bound their books.  Yesterday in the tie-up session, they hardened the covers, primed them for painting and illustration, and we discussed the process of making a fine-art journal, further applications of the techniques they learned on the first book, etc.  When the group left late in the evening, they seemed fired up about the process, and psyched to get to work on their new books.  I’d forgotten how much fun it is to do a participatory class demonstration like that.  I’ve always enjoyed working with other people around – this workshop, I made a book of my own, demonstrating the process.  The students followed along, step by step.  It was gratifying to see twelve tight, evenly bound coptic books! 

So – now I have a weekend to tie up loose ends and get ready for next week.  I think the most difficult thing will be waking up at 5:45 every day.  I’ve been on a darktime schedule this past year, working on my books until 3 or 4 AM   everyday and then sleeping until 9AM each morning.  I’m going to lose my late night hours, hopefully without losing out on productivity.  It will, thankfully, mean not watching hours of television every night – I’ll be doing the book work in the evenings after dinner.