generations of marks
After the birth of my daughter, I wanted a way to track her growth. This obviously wasn’t a new parenting desire, and the internet provided many examples of ways to showcase vertical growth marks. I didn’t like any examples that I saw. To me, a growth ruler should tell one story, and one story only…the growth of children. With some luck and blessing, that story of growth would highlight multiple generations of children.
The design I wanted for a growth ruler would intentionally cast aside paint or any other added design. The only color on the growth ruler would come from whatever markings were made on the wood by the caregivers. Numbers, marks, and names would all be routed into the board in a manner that made their presence known through light and shadow and tangibly felt through indention.
The first rulers I prototyped came from wood that my wife and father-in-law bought together before his passing in 2013. I traded design services with Mecca Design and had them fabricate the first two rulers that will eventually be handed off to my children.
