Hybrid Markets

A neighbor in the consulting business and I had coffee last week to talk about being consultants. She's an expert "silo buster," and marketing and communications professional. Generally, she works with nonprofit organizations that want staff in different departments to work together toward a common goal.

Over the course of our hour and a half chat, we were both wondering how writing about food, history, politics/policy and design and illustrating could fit into a single business plan, executed by a single person. What do I put on a business card? This seemed like a good exercise, so I sketched a possible logo with a fenestrated pumpkin and mocked up a card in Photoshop. That evening, I drew a corn skyscraper (included here). The corn is better; I'm redrawing the pumpkin.

Hybridizing skills and experience is easier said than done. I have renewed respect for professionals who change careers, especially those who have established clear professional identities in their initial chosen field. I am meeting more and more "transitional professionals" around my age who, for one good reason or another, thought it was time to do something else. Leaving an established career for the unknown requires professionalization and routinization of new work, even at its sketchiest and most embryonic.

The alternative is professional chaos and too-frequent dog walking.

Thanks to my demanding friends for pushing the hybrid illustration/writing efforts. More to come...