The Designer

It's a late summer night on the Oregon coast on a full-moonlit night. The shimmering coast is nearly as bright as day. Huge rock formations along a glistening beach are so breathtaking I just have to stop. Walking along this beach, viewing the rock formations, the sand, the moon, the starry sky, I'm struck with an incredible thought. This could not possibly have "just happened!" Let me explain.

For years, I refused to acknowledge a Designer and Creator of this universe. Yet, all my adult life I've been a professional graphic designer. Most people don't understand what that is. "You're a cartoonist?" They ask.
"No, I design things for the web or print... like this brochure," I answer, handing them a sample.
"But this doesn't have any cartoons in it. Did you take these photographs?"
"No, a commercial photographer did."
"Well, did you do this lettering?"
"No, that's type set on my computer."
"Well, did you print it?"
"NO, a printer did."
"Well, what did YOU do?"

"I DESIGNED it!" I would blurt, by now exasperated. "Someone has to decide what size and color it's going to be, what to use for photos or artwork, how to crop them, where to put them on the page, what type style to use and how big, how many columns to use for the body copy, how to fold it, how to make it inviting to read, what kind of paper to use, whether it will self-mail or go in an envelope and how to design the envelope! In short, someone has to make the visual decisions that will best communicate on paper. It doesn't just happen!"

Bingo! The same thing people had been doing to me for years, I had been doing to the Great Designer. A printed piece doesn't just happen without being designed and produced. Nor does a website. They do not magically appear. Whether that design is assembled haphazardly by an untrained eye, or thoughtfully by a professional designer, a brochure or website must be designed and produced or it will not exist, just as a house is built from a design, the builders don't just start nailing random boards together and expect to end up with a house.

In the same way, this beautiful coastline could not have just happened without a Designer.

Clearly, the universe has design. Plants are designed to take in carbon dioxide and emit oxygen, animals and humans are designed to breathe oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. The waste material we excrete is offensive to us because it contains the byproducts of our food that are either useless or harmful to us. Yet these same excretions are the best natural fertilizer known for new plant growth. This is clearly design. How could these life cycles have design without a Designer? How could life exist without the Great Designer?

If you're interested, there is more information about:
The most important event of all time and
The most important Book of all time.

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Warren Kramer is the editor of Daily Wisdom and runs the graphic design service Warren Kramer & Associates.