Maurice Sendak died today. My favorite quote from him is:
"An illustrator in my own mind – and this is not a truth of any kind – is someone who so falls in love with writing that he wishes he had written it, and the closest he can get to is illustrating it. And the next thing you learn, you have to find something unique in this book, which perhaps even the author was not entirely aware of. And that’s what you hold on to, and that’s what you add to the pictures: a whole Other Story that you believe in, that you think is there."
We need illustrators in safety. Too often we take rules that were written by some government worker, possibly a lawyer, and we make that our policy. We forget that risk management is the real goal of safety. We make safety an end unto itself.
Look at the simple issue of fire extinguishers. Though legally compliant, they are often inadequate to extinguish any type of fire, inaccessible in an emergency, invisible to people in the workplace, unneeded, and even a hazard because evacuation may be the best choice no matter what type of fire. Not only do hotels have sprinklers over the swimming pool, there is usually a fire extinguisher on the wall. Yet there are no fire extinguishers in the bedrooms. The bedrooms are where hotel fires usually start and where poisonous gases may spread through the heating and cooling ducts often causing multiple fatalities of sleeping guests in other rooms.
Using Sendak's theory, an illustrator could see through the CFR "story," see the real need and come up with a picture of what to do in the event of a fire or in how to prevent a fire.
David Sneed
"There must be more to life than having everything!"
-from "Higglety Pigglety Pop!"
The following is an important interview with him. In essence he says:"An illustrator in my own mind – and this is not a truth of any kind – is someone who so falls in love with writing that he wishes he had written it, and the closest he can get to is illustrating it. And the next thing you learn, you have to find something unique in this book, which perhaps even the author was not entirely aware of. And that’s what you hold on to, and that’s what you add to the pictures: a whole Other Story that you believe in, that you think is there."
We need illustrators in safety. Too often we take rules that were written by some government worker, possibly a lawyer, and we make that our policy. We forget that risk management is the real goal of safety. We make safety an end unto itself.
Look at the simple issue of fire extinguishers. Though legally compliant, they are often inadequate to extinguish any type of fire, inaccessible in an emergency, invisible to people in the workplace, unneeded, and even a hazard because evacuation may be the best choice no matter what type of fire. Not only do hotels have sprinklers over the swimming pool, there is usually a fire extinguisher on the wall. Yet there are no fire extinguishers in the bedrooms. The bedrooms are where hotel fires usually start and where poisonous gases may spread through the heating and cooling ducts often causing multiple fatalities of sleeping guests in other rooms.
Using Sendak's theory, an illustrator could see through the CFR "story," see the real need and come up with a picture of what to do in the event of a fire or in how to prevent a fire.
David Sneed
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