Sharing Dreams/Compartiendo Sueños 2007:
Design in Culture/Diseño en Cultura

Henry Brimmer

The goal or message is to connect and share yourself in “Sharing Dreams” -- “Dreams” as I spelled it to accent the idea of sharing ME in every dream. The thoughts and surreal nature of the writing and visuals are much like dreams seem to come to us in symobls and experiences all mixed together to give you the over all feeling of the moment or message. The symbols are from many of my own dreams that point to this direction I have been exploring lately. They also speak to a link we all have culturally.

The concept behind it is something I am trying to start a business with and have used in research projects while in Dubai. I see the creative culture in every country, culture, religion and race to be one of the few last hopes for overcoming all we face today. It is a bond and power that instantly overcomes almost everything else. It is like sharing a great meal with someone or sharing a song.

Globally the creative people of the world are the eyes, ears and hearts of their societies. I think of us as the “canaries” that they used to use in the mine fields to smell the gas and die first before the human workers died. We are like that in our cultures. Many of my friends around the world are in great stress now, creativity is more than a decorative element for the world i’ts a vital renewal of hope and a new vantage point to see beyond the immediate crisis to a better place.

In my travels to Zimbabwe and working in Dubai seeing the creatives of India, Iran, the Arab world, the Latino world it is a power that is far greater than anything I have seen in the corporate or political world. There is always the creative drive that lifts the most poverty stricken above the negative issues
they face.

That spirit is about all we have left in the world that hasn’t been corrupted, yet historically creatives are not used in business models and major political think tanks. I really see the naievity of that and think that if the canaries of the world die--what is left? So this is a call to share, to protect yourselves to speak up with the value we have to our societies and celebrate the gift of sharing dreams that can become realities.

Bio

After embarking on a search with no particular thing in mind and traveling half way around the world, I was told by someone who looked at my sketchbooks full of doodles that I was a graphic designer... I had no idea what that meant, but look back at that point in time as defining my life for the next thirty years!

I consider myself lucky; I can’t get enough of design and can’t wait to get up in the morning to resume work... time then does not matter; I’m in that area athletes call “the zone” – a wonderful space to be...for the longest time, I had my own studio in San Francisco, taught design, and published Photometro Magazine, a grassroots publication dedicated to presenting fine art photography. Over the years, we distributed 15,000 copies on a monthly basis free of charge. the magazine received high accolades from the AIGA, the Society of Publication Designers, and others. In the year 2000 I was hired to start a graphic design program at Southern Utah University where we spent five years planting the graphic design seed and caring for the seedling. In 2006 I taught for one year at the University of Illinois, and then was hired by Michigan State University in East Lansing where my family – wife, Therese, also a designer, and sons, Matias and Andreas – currently reside.

I have received my fair share of recognition over the years... the latest is to have work selected for this year’s aiga 365/28 exhibition, but my greatest source of pride, are my boisterous boys, and my two wonderful daughters, Martina and Yael... life is good!