My son, Ellis graduated from Vermont Commons School in South Burlington last Friday. I had this messenger bag made for him. This is no ordinary messenger bag. It’s his own design. The first image is the bag Ellis designed and constructed for his art school portfolio. The leather bag was made at Champlain Leather in Burlington, Vermont. The folks at Champlain Leather went above and beyond to redo something that I had not been clear about. If you ever need or want some leather work done, I highly recommend this operation. Ellis was thrilled with the bag. I hope that carrying a bag of his own design is a reminder of the many possibilities and directions you can explore as a designer.

I can’t wait to see what Ellis will be creating at The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design this fall. Here’s to ALL of America’s graduates—”The world is your oyster”. Admittedly the world for our graduates now is very challenging, sometimes tainted and hard to access from a lot of vantage points. So, “the world is your oyster” has a lot of resonance in these challenging times. But striving toward things that spark you is always worth the effort and challenge.