Viva la Deadlines

While watching a recent documentary about Yves Saint Laurent, his partner had a comment on deadlines. Something to the effect: I don't know what magic designers have but they always make the deadline.

Eight years in newspapers honed my deadline muscles and muses. But I wanted relief, so I turned to academia for—among other things—it's openness. But deadlines are part of design always and this month was an extraordinary one.

So just a note of gratitude to Pierre Bergé for not only acknowledging the power of a deadline, but for making me feel better when I needed it. Four major publications have returned from the press in the past week alone. I feel the weight of the world off my shoulders.

Maybe that's the magic. Design generates constant relief. Constant labor. Constant ticking. Constant joy.