My professional life as a graphic designer started in an unassuming way: one day, a professor asked me if I wanted to start an internship right there at my university, to put together a small institutional newsletter for internal circulation.
I said yes.
“Do you know about layout?”
I said yes.
“Great. Then, the day after tomorrow, come by this room in the morning so we can start the project, okay?”
“Okay.”
I showed up that same day—not in that room, but at the National Library in downtown Rio. I went there to research and study layout, something I had absolutely no idea what it was or what it was for.
It may seem unthinkable to you, but this was a time when there was no Google, no ChatGPT, no Wikipedia, or the like. In fact, the internet didn’t even exist. So reading paper books wasn’t a matter of choice.
But the moral of the story is that, without realizing it, I put into practice one of the proverbs that the Chinese general Sun Tzu is said to have written in The Art of War:
Focus on strengths (“I showed up that same day”),
Recognize weaknesses (“I had absolutely no idea what it was or what it was for”),
Seize opportunities (“I said yes”), and
Protect against threats (“I went there to research and study”).
I think the general would have smiled in approval.
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