The fact that someplace or something might feed your work is, in effect, acknowledging connections with larger systems—culture, community, and environment. Plumbing was “it” for me—generations of my family all directing fluids. The metaphor was satisfying, a blue-collar contrast to my white-collar profession. Systems behind the walls became analogous to systems in the mind; tools and processes I knew so well were now consciously massaged, as a layer, into a tough, everyday aesthetic. In the spirit of Magritte’s “This is not a pipe,” the surrealism of word and image became a looking-glass to “see” graphic design better.

I’ll admit, I only worked at a brass factory in my hometown of Waterbury, Connecticut for one summer in between college years, and was merely a grunt for a few plumbing jobs I tagged along on with my father. But it's about as close as I get to the trade. Whenever I’m asked these days to, for example, help carry a bathtub up a flight of stairs, I bring my camera along to document the installation process.

Scott Santoro, Principal, Worksight

> Read the lecture titled "Plumbing Design."
> Read the “Worksight Words” section (#1, 2, 3 & 4)