Now Direction

At the beginning of 2005, I parted ways with the foodservice industry. Not having a 12 hour day job, I started going a little bit nuts. Once the apartment was spotless (the last time it was ever cleaned so thoroughly), I brushed-up on the hideous Sioux City economy, not to mention Iowa’s brain drain, while looking for jobs. My 3rd lumbar was still out of place, and the physical anguish didn’t help. I got really listless, grew a beard, doodled incessantly, and spent hours reading and vainly tried to direct my angst anywhere. On the plus side, I took up practicing yoga and started a journal.

Later that week my brother, Adam (always a fan of Biblical metaphor), was feeling very depressed about his life, too. He sent me this e-mail:

Subject: Re: hello
I feel like a tiny boat that is in the middle of stormy sea,
being tossed this way and that with now direction.

no restuarants seems to be hiring.

I keep saying that I don't want to design for my main income...
mainly b/c I'm not confident about my designs. But, It's all
I've got for work right now. So I need to do it.

I lost it. This kid can’t get hired at a restaurant and doesn’t want to do design work?? Completely opposite of me. And then there’s his grammar: sounds more like Engrish to me! What a crappy translation this could be! I just kept laughing.

That with now direction? What could that possibly mean? But that’s when it hit me: just what is “now direction?” What if something was without Now Direction? At the time we’re both kind of without direction…
It could be—an accurate description of a vector—a principle of inertia—an instant of motion—or motivation! And we use vector graphics… That’s it!!! I have but one purpose: to start a portfolio blog.

And that’s how Now Direction came to be (named).

Too bad I don’t use it for a portfolio…