Plumbing Design is the title of a presentation given by Scott Santoro of Worksight to the seven chapters of the Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA). The city chapters included were Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, and Perth, from April 23rd through May 9th, 2001. The web version scripted on the following pages is a reduced version of the original.

click to enlarge each image

Before I expose myself, psychologically, and delve below the surface to reveal what I call my “plumbing epiphany,” I’m going to DIG RIGHT IN with a project that might help justify why I’m bothering to tell you about my plumbing layer at all. This project is a result of my blue-collar interest or affair, and as you’ll later see, I have a RELEVANT CONNECTION.

HONEST BEAUTY, GILBERT PAPER is a paper promotion that visualizes the process of making paper inside of Gilbert’s 100 year-old mill. I told this new client I get VERY TURNED ON by FACTORIES which they thought was STRANGE. But regardless, they flew me out to frozen Wisconsin, where I was introduced to this soaky warm mill. It was filled with HUGE hot-tubs of steaming, turning, starched white squishable paper-pulp. You get all misty wet just walking near one of the machines—an experience ONLY a graphic designer can appreciate.

The piece began with a found object—a heavy, metal hook I picked up from the floor of the mill. It was a fitting metaphor--literally, a "graphic hook" that I bring the viewer into the piece with. For starters, it something that was used throughout the mill to transport paper rolls. Second, it was Elegant and FUNCTIONAL in a tough sort of way—just like the mill itself. AND, third, it LOOKED like the SILHOUETTE of a duck or swan--the Gilbert factory workers are known in their baseball league as THE GILBERT DUCKS, reason being that there was a large large, heated duck pond in front of the main building that attracted the birds in the cold winter months. Something seemed right about the connection and the idea began to formulate. I think this process is called "conceptualization during the execution." The mill, the hook...?! This WAS the "Ugly Duckling" fable of Hans Christian Anderson except that instead of Copenhagen it was Menasha, Wisconsin and instead of a boy, it was a factory.

The Gilbert MILL was not an UGLY duckling and we shouldn’t try to hide any gritty parts. It was, in fact, beautiful in its authenticity and should be presented as such. This piece was going to be an HONEST and UNCOATED presentation, printed on the uncoated, beautiful paper they make. That's how we got to the title "HONEST BEAUTY. "

Isn’t it wonderful when a client “GETS IT.” They were turned off for about a minute and then, after a quick meeting, said yes to this idea.

I immediately began laying out a plan for how to proceed, and of course started photographing other tools and objects I’d seen around the mill. They helped capture the character of the place. So did the employees working there. Jobs like blending pulp, calendering sheets, trimming, packing and shipping suddenly became picturesque; the poses they took while working, poetic.
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There WAS this one worker who SCREAMED at us for SLOWING HIM DOWN. “Take my picture? We don’t have time for this, we’ve got work to do.” It was perfect, profound really, because the client wanted us to discuss the WISCONSIN WORK ETHIC and there was no better way to say it then to reprint his words... And this is a close-up of a sign that’s been there forever, complete with PENNIES taped to it for luck. What more could I say...to me it’s poetry ACCORDING TO the aesthetic COORDINATES of what a factory is....
The Gilbert brochure continues in the full lecture