What’s in a name?

The Observationalist explained.

Maybe the name of this publication doesn’t matter too much in the grand scheme of things. I’m sure the content will evolve and change as I continue to write and post more (and I hope that it does) but I thought it would be good to at least start out by giving it an appropriate title. Because this is a newsletter, I wanted to name it something that sounds like a traditional newspaper, or a classic publication. The Observationalist sounds like something I’d like to read.

As soon as I settled on that idea I immediately started imagining how I’d make some clever visual elements to go along with the name, and I got ALL caught up in it. This is the part of my brain that kicks in somewhat automatically, which in turn is also why I am an illustrator. These are the things I think about…

I’m not sure who this acorn head guy is. As I was putting this together I felt like it needed a central element, but one that did not say “this is serious news.” I was combing through old illustration projects looking for something that might work, and this guy popped up, so I gave him a try. As soon as he landed there it just felt right. The side eye expression caps it off, I think. Like he’s looking around wondering why he’s on the front page of the paper. Other than that, he’s of no particular importance. But now, I guess he’s like the mascot or something? I don’t know. Just roll with it.

Then I thought, oh maybe I could get some shots of readers enjoying The Observationalist. So here’s Alfred Hitchcock and his dog scrutinizing my every word…

But seriously.

Why am I calling this The Observationalist? For me as a visual artist having sharp observational skills is something that’s pretty important. I like the idea of paying attention to things that are often overlooked, and noticing similarities in seemingly dissimilar things. Connecting dots and looking for overlaps. Looking and listening and contemplating before speaking.

We’ll get into this more as we go along, but I read something recently that Fred Rogers (that’s Mr. Rogers to you) said, and it really resonated with me. He said, “I’m very concerned that our society is much more interested in information than wonder. In noise, rather than silence…how do we encourage reflection? Oh my, this is a noisy world. What can we do, to encourage people to have more quiet in their lives, more silence? Real revelation comes through silence.”

This is a noisy world! Couldn’t be more true. I’m not trying to add to the noise, but I’m hoping this will be a place that feels quiet and contemplative. I probably won’t be writing anything groundbreaking here, but at least I hope it will entertain you. And if it makes you think a little bit too, I’ll call that a success.

Thanks for reading!

You’re in great company…