Albert Bros. Bakery

It was English muffin making day at Albert Bros. Bakery yesterday. Alyssa came over for a visit, and Barb had her magic muffin mojo working in the kitchen.

Barb, Alyssa and I shared ideas on restarting my Grandfather's business Albert Bros. Bakery. It was fun playing with ideas on what we would do. We'd bake everything from daily loaves of bread to wedding cakes. Then we're going to open a "cafe'" as Alyssa called it, and serve breakfast and lunch all around the theme of fresh bread.

Then we thought of how we'd have to work 12-hours a day six days a week.

Then we thought of how we'd have to move from Marietta since there isn't enough traffic here to make that work.

Well, it's fun to think about. And who knows . . .

If I could do it all over again, I tell people I would manufacture toilet paper. I'd make something everyone needs.

Everyone with a computer is a graphic artist. I earned that journalism degree, studied the techniques of publishing and communications, sharpened my skills working for a few newspapers and magazines, and find myself competing with housewives and students for work.

The life of a designer - no one tells an engineer how to build a bridge, or a surgeon where to make the first incision, but everyone is a designer.

It's no biggie. Perserverance works it out. If someone is still working as a designer (any kind of designer) at age 35 you know they've been good enough at what they do to stick around. And most don't make it.

I always asked young designers why they want to design.

"Because it seems like a lot of fun," is what I'm most often told.

"It should be fun," I always reply. "But when it seems like hard work too you'll know you're getting good."

Just hand someone a blank page sometime and say "Make something," and watch the bewildered faces that extend from there.

I've always said that I will never be bored. I can always make something. I don't care if all I have is a bottle of spray paint and a cardboard box. I don't care if it turns out neat or really bad.

Whether or not people think so of themselves or not, everyone does have a creative impulse inside them. It is a joy to pull that out. We should all just sit down and get the crayons out and color sometimes. Just don't feel like you have to stay inside the lines.