Three things...

Three passions have governed my life:
The longings for love, the search for knowledge,
And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind].

Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of love I have seen
In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision
Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of [people].
I have wished to know why the stars shine.

Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,
But always pity brought me back to earth;
Cries of pain reverberated in my heart
Of children in famine, of victims tortured
And of old people left helpless.
I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot,
And I too suffer.

This has been my life; I found it worth living.

Bertrand Russell

Why am i a designer?
because i believe that i can make a difference. In 1964 a manifesto titled 'First Things First' was written and I was taught it at university.
My first job was selling advertising for a local newspaper. I hated it. I made money selling products to people who a) didn't need them and b) couldn't really afford them.
Almost three years ago I started my job in Care for the Family. a charity focusing on strengthening family life. What I do there i love. I love the thought of seeing at the end of time all of the people that my work has helped. People who 'liked the look' of something that would end up saving their marriage. Families who decided to 'give it another go'. Single parents who found hope. Bereaved parents who found comfort.
I did that. I gave them hope. So if you want to see some of my design work: look out at a married couple walking down the street, A mother carrying her toddler back home with a hope in her heart.
That is why i do what i do. i believe i can give people hope and make a difference. and that feels good in my heart.

I also love watching people.
There is a science to design. In Borders bookstore you can drink a Starbucks coffee upstairs, overlook the store and watch the world go by below you. I enjoy this. In university part of the course was equivalent to an A level in sociology, the study of social interaction. I love people. they are random creatures. I combined this knowledge with self taught psychology and counseling practice and I analyse people. Knowing that nothing people done is just because, everything is done for a reason. To fill some void inside themselves, whether that void be known or unknown.
Abraham Maslow theorised that people are motivated by needs. look at the diagram. When applied to what i do as a job you can 'persuade' people to do things.
The science of design is far more complex that I can summarise here. But this is an insight.

I want to be a knight...
I once watched the film DragonHeart and in one scene a Knight recites 'The Old Code' (A fantastic read are the Medieval codes of Chivalry). It goes:

...inside the circle of the table, under the holy sword, a knight must swear he will obey to the eternal code, eternal as the table, a ring bound to honour.

A knight is sworn to valor, his heart knows only virtue, his blade defends the helpless, his might upholds the weak, his word speaks only truth, his wrath undoes the wicked.

The right can never die, if a man still remembers him. Words are not forgotten, if a voice pronounce them clearly, The Code always shines, if a heart preserves it brightly...

The Old Code....

This inspired me. I love tales of dragons and knights. Arthurian legend and Magic. I love the theory that Arthur himself is buried in an underground city close to where i played as a child.
Oh to be a knight.