Image vs. Reality

I don't watch a lot of TV anymore, so I don't know if stations still do this.

But at one time, you'd see an occasional news promo showing Keanu Ogle or whomever jumping up from his desk, shouting instructions to the newsroom staff. Then, he'd dash out the door, necktie flying over his shoulder, and leap into the NewsUpdateStratoCopterCamCopter, which would then take off and disappear into the sun.

What you didn't see, after the marketing department photog had all the shots he needed, was the NewsUpdateStratoCopterCamCopter turn around and land, dropping off the anchor who would then return to the coffee and Chips Ahoy! cookies at his desk.

Because generally speaking, anchors never get off their asses except to shoot promos. I mean, why do you think they call them 'anchors'?

But in TV, as one of my bosses used to say, 'perception is reality,' so if a lump of gelatinous anchor flesh is shown being carried aloft to pursue the Big Story somewhere over the Oklahoma horizon, it must really be happening.

Meanwhile, the people who actually covered the stories labored in relative obscurity, because although they were doing the work, they didn't look like people who'd be doing the work, so they were unsuitable for the promos.

The issue for me, then, to clarify my previous post, is not whether I'm an artist, but whether I look like an artist, or more specifically a creative class "Graphics Design Consultant."

(Because, gawd, who wants to be a 'commercial artist'? That's some nerd with an X-Acto knife clipped in his shirt pocket and spots of formerly molten adhesive wax solidified into his pants. Have you seen my sheet of 10pt Helvetica bold LetraSet? How did my Zipatone get all creased up?)

And to narrow the scope even more, the question is whether I look like a Graphics Design Consultant to someone who has a certain conception of what a Graphics Design Consultant looks like, which is to say younger, thinner, more Lycra-clad and skinny-eyeglassed than me.

Because although I may be doing the work, I may not look like I'm doing the work. Perception, reality, etc.