Adios, Speak Up

By 2004, I had been a graphic designer for about five years. I was working in-house in the corporate world, freshly married, but facing a dramatic burn out in my professional world. I was out of steam and I had no idea why. Yes corporate work can get stale, but this was beyond that. I was having difficulty in finding inspiration outside of my work. Trade magazines, movie posters, book covers… nothing was working for me anymore. I was seriously thinking about a new direction in life.

And then, a miraculous day happened: I found Speak Up. I think it was in a HOW issue that covered various design blogs (“blog” being the online phenomenon at that time, before everyone and their grandmother had one) and for whatever reason, Speak Up stood out for me. It probably was due to the fact that the premise of the site was for designers to be able to talk with other designers. It was different, though, from your standard message board/forum. It was much more engaging. There was dialogue. There was heated dialogue with rhythm and passion and back-and-forth banter. And it was wonderful.

I never encountered this before. The other designers I worked with and knew were always on a different page than me. I could never engage in a decent conversation about differentiating opinions (or build a camaraderie with agreeing opinions). But now I felt rejuvenated. Energized. I had a pep in my step! And my professional life was good again.

And this lasted for about 2  years until our first daughter joined our family. And life got busy and I found my online habits changing. I was spending less time online, and spending less time reading fewer posts on Speak Up. I even found a new job that kept me busier than ever. I was looking for shorter and faster (more succinct, if you will) online experiences. Quipsologies came out from the same house of Under Consideration, which met most of those needs. Then I moved on to RSS feeds as design blogs blossomed. There was almost too much to manage.

I also found that I needed to speak up less. I don’t know what it was that changed, but I didn’t have to thump my chest as often as I used to. I guess I got it out of my system, and found my own voice without a need to prove something.

So I’ve always been fond of Speak Up. It was a growth period for me, a positive one. I learned many things there. But finally, all good things must come to an end. And last week Armin announced that Speak Up was going to lock down. All the posts and comments would still be available, however nothing new would go up. No new posts, no new comments.

So this is my sappy, sordid goodbye for Speak Up. A chapter in my professional journey will be reserved for you.