Tough week to summarize. It was a challenging week for several reasons. Work wasn’t great. We were busy at home. Running constantly. And in the middle of it, I had a little bit of a professional realization. We got to see my nephew play football finally. We’ve been to games that he hasn’t played in, but this time we got to see Brady play and hear “Brady West on the tackle.” Ryan had four lacrosse games on Saturday, which was exhausting for everyone. And I got a chance to take Liz to one of our favorite restaurants for a much needed date night.
Feels
Running. So many commitments. Always on the move. I wouldn’t trade any of them for the world, but it can be exhausting.
Many years ago, I was having coffee with a successful designer. We were discussing career challenges and he just offhandedly commented “I just don’t love design any more. In fact, I’m thinking about winding down my business.” I was still a pretty young and ambitious designer and left the meeting stunned. How could a successful designer get to this point?
Fast forward to about six months ago. My oldest is in college and took a digital art class… basically the first design class. She did really well and thought about changing her major to graphic design, but she didn’t. “I don’t want to do what you do.” In fact, all of my kids are incredibly artistic, and none of them want to be designers. I shared this observation to my wife, who matter of factly commented “You don’t love design. You haven’t for a long time. They’ve watched you. Why would they be excited about it?”
Yesterday, I was in a work meeting and I found myself far more interested in data and far less interested in creative execution. I was thinking about all the different ways I could study a problem and understand it better.
I’ve been in graduate school for what seems like an eternity.1 I went back to school to get a Master’s degree and fell in love with research. Specifically research surrounding design and visual communication. Mostly quantitative analysis. I’ve written journal articles and conference presentations. I finished my MA and rolled right into Ph.D. work. Grad school is literally what I choose to do in my “spare” time. It’s a grind and sometimes, it’s overwhelming, but I love it.
There are still aspects of design that I enjoy. I love creating typefaces and working on personal projects. Many of the things that made me a successful designer — asking questions, identifying problems and crafting creative solutions — are the same skills that I use as a researcher. Career wise, I’m still a creative director and designer, but the passion for the craft isn’t there like it used to be. I just don’t love design anymore.
I’m at peace with this revelation, but it’s a strangely emotional moment when you realize that the career you’ve built over the last 27+ years no longer fits you.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
I’ve been a part-time grad student for six years at this point. ↩︎
This week provided confirmation of how bad Hurricane Helene devastated the people and places that we love in Asheville. We’ve heard from all of our friends and they are fine, but the destruction is almost incomprehensible. Asheville is a 2 hour drive from our house, and we make day trips up there all the time. Many of the stores, restaurants and spots we visit are quite simply gone. Lutheridge — a camp very special to my family — is okay, but with a lot of damage. The pen store in Biltmore Village is destroyed. So is the little bakery next door with the amazing Ginger cookies and the restaurant across the street with the pea salad that my wife loves. It’s hard to process all the loss.
Feels
Off balance. Last week was a dance of improvisation. School schedules were changing and shifting, normal rhythms interrupted. But still thankful that our family and house are fine.
Busy weekend. Ryan had his first lacrosse game of the season and it went well. Jill had her homecoming dance. We’ll be at the coffee shop later to work on homework.
Where has this year gone? How is it already October?
Health
Still doing pretty well with my diet. Still on track for my goals. Giving myself a year to get healthy was a good plan, but it’s hard to stay motivated over such a long span of time.
Projects
Didn’t really make much progress on projects this week.
Got a revise and resubmit with minor changes this week. Excited to see this work get published.
Entertainment
Didn’t watch any college football this weekend. Which means I missed my Gamecocks struggling against Ole Miss. And Vandy’s shocking upset against Alabama.
Looking forward to F1 being back next week.
Just found out that my favorite pen store in Asheville, Origami Ink, was completely destroyed in the flood. I assumed that was the case because they were located in Biltmore Village, but the owners posted an update today confirming the sad news. Such nice people. I’m devastated for them.
It’s funny to see how a post shows up when crossposting. In Micro.Blog, it’s a link with some tiny thumbnails. In Bluesky, a link with all four images. In Threads, a link with a preview, but the featured image is my Micro.Blog fish avatar.
My dad texted me one afternoon that he’d found some fountain pens at a local auction and asked if I wanted to bid on them. He’s shared links in the past and I’ve never seen anything that looked interesting. From the look of the pictures, most of the listings looked well worn. But one of the pens was actually in the original packaging — a Parker 25B. It was impossible to tell what condition the pen was in, but I decided to take a shot on it. Dad placed a $7 bid. And won.1
When I got the pen, it was in great shape. The package contained two dried up ink cartridges and a squeeze converter.2 The pen had been used — there was dried up black ink in the feed — but I was able to clean it up fairly easily. I inserted a modern Parker black “Quink” cartridge3 and the pen started writing immediately.
The Parker 25 was an entry level metal pen that the company introduced in 1975 and sold until the late 1990s. My new acquisition was a Parker 25B, a matte black version that was only sold between 1979 and 1983. The body of the pen is a little bit thinner than many of my favorite pens with a stepped down section at the back that allows the cap to be securely posted while writing. Apparently the matte black finish can be easily damaged, but the surface of this pen looks like it’s barely been used.
The nib section is simple and beautiful, with no markings to indicate what thickness it is. The 25B was only available in a fine or medium nib, and this one writes like a medium nib.
The Parker 25 was designed to look modern and that’s how Parker marketed the pen. In one ad, they referred to the pen as “Space Age Design.” One major shift from traditional Parker pens was the clip design — squared off with a Parker badge on it instead of the traditional Parker arrow.
The pen is stamped “Made in England,” but I don’t know what year this pen was manufactured in. Many Parkers have year codes etched into them, but I can’t find one on my 25B. Given that it was only manufactured between 1979 and 1983, I know the pen is between 41-45 years old.
Bidding on this pen was a gamble because we couldn’t inspect it in person. I’ve been intimidated by vintage pens, worried that I’d overpay or get something that doesn’t work. My dad loves these kinds of auctions and has been looking for pens for several years. This is the first I felt good about. If you are interested in picking up a vintage pen like this, my best advice is to be patient and know what you are looking for.
My Parker 25B writes beautifully and fits my preference for modernist fountain pen designs. I haven’t decided if I’m going to add it to my daily carry yet, or just use it at home. But I’m thrilled that I have it in my collection and look forward to using it.
Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
One benefit of the Parker brand is that cartridges are available everywhere. I picked up the ink cartridges at an Office Max near my office. ↩︎
In general, I avoid Twitter and Facebook. But Twitter is still useful for live sports. And Facebook is useful for checking on people after natural disasters.
Hurricane Helene hit us in Columbia, South Carolina this week. Early Friday morning, we lost power with 60+ mph wind gusts. Trees down everywhere. In Columbia, we weren’t prepared for a storm of this magnitude. We got power back 12 hours later, but many people in the area are still without power.
As bad as it was here, it was much, much worse two hours north in Asheville. Western North Carolina is devastated. Asheville is in many ways a second home and it’s heartbreaking to see the devastation and flooding.
Feels
Grateful that our family is fine, our house is undamaged, and we have power.
Heartbroken for communities devastated by Hurricane Helene.
Thankful for the linemen who are working to restore power. (There were five trucks in the front of our neighborhood earlier.)
Health
I wasn’t particularly rigid with my diet while we were navigating high winds and power outages, but I felt like given the situation, I was able to make healthy choices.
Projects
Not a productive week from a project standpoint.
Entertainment
Read Dan Moren’s “The Armageddon Protocol.” I’ve read all the other books in the series and this book was a fitting conclusion. Thoroughly enjoyed the series.
No Gamecock Football this week. No F1 this week. I did watch a little bit of NFL football, but it’s mostly on as background noise.
Expected Helene to be bad, but we don’t normally get hit this hard in Columbia. Lots of trees down and power outages across South Carolina.
Tree at the front of our neighborhood fell into the creek and took the power lines with it. Dominion has cleared enough so we can leave the neighborhood if we need to, but it’s going to be a while before we have power.
For several reasons, I decided to work from home today. I know that many (most?) people love it, but I really, really don’t enjoy working from home.
Baseball is a cruel game. Other sports cap your suffering at a reasonable number. In the N.F.L., the most games you could ever lose in a season is 17. In the N.B.A., you could theoretically lose 82. (The record is 73.) But baseball’s season is relentless: 162 games long… If you lose your grip, as the White Sox did immediately… you can fall through an eternal void of losing. And every day, in the middle of that falling, reporters will stick microphones in your face to ask you how it feels to be plunging through the eternal void.
Academics: A CV and resume are completely different things.
On their websites: “Click here to view my CV/Resume.”
Got a revise and resubmit with minor revisions on a journal article today. Excited to get this one out in the world. I wrote the paper for a Ph.D. class a couple of years ago, presented it at a conference and then improved the paper. Happy with how it’s turned out.
This week was a little more relaxed than the last few. I took Friday off and spent some time working on projects. The weeknights were busy, and our middle child had driving lessons on Saturday and Sunday. Next week looks to be reasonable.
Humorously, I wrote, but forgot to upload, my Now page from last week. I’m trying to use this as a weekly journal. It’s more for me than anyone else, but if you missed my weekly update, I’m sorry.
Feels
I remain impressed with the Harris/Walz campaign. They’ve just got to keep it going until November. (And honestly, beyond Election Day when the MAGA types refuse to accept the results of the election.)
I’m writing this from my back deck where I’m cooking out tonight. My wife is doing classwork out here with me. We’re a couple of geeks.
I do feel stretched thin, with being a parent, an employee and a student. The day off this week helped. I need to remember to take those occasional “mental health” days.
Health
I ate well this week. I do feel that I need to make a couple of changes to my current routine. I’m getting hungry in the early afternoon and might need to add a planned snack.
Projects
I got a lot of work done on my contract type design project. Really happy with where it is going.
I haven’t posted much on social media the past couple of weeks. Not sure why… just too busy, I guess.
McLaren had a great race at Singapore. Lando Norris with an incredible victory and they expand their team lead. Having fun watching this incredible season, but bummed that the next race is a month away.
Good win for my Gamecocks this week against an overmatched Akron squad. I’ve watched a few NFL games, but since I don’t really have a favorite NFL team, they are mostly background noise while I’m working on other projects.
Today was my 10th race watching F1. I started with the Canadian Grand Prix. Since then, we’ve had 7 winners from 4 different teams. I think I picked the right time to start watching. What a fun sport. I’m hooked.
