Michael McInnis
Designer · Writer · Composer · Woodworker · Raconteur · Veteran
digitally Handcrafted DESIGN
With over 30 years of design and publishing experience, from pasting-up waxed phototype rolls and halftones, to desktop publishing, I understand books. For me, designing books, whether for the ICA Boston, or small independent publishers, is like making a cutting board or lamp. Each starts with an idea, an image or mood, a sense of place and function. I may keep sharp chisels and a computer in separate toolboxes, but both feel like extensions of my hands.
woodworking
I attended a vocational high school and trained as a cabinetmaker. After detours to the Pacific and Indian Oceans, via the Navy, chasing white whales and Soviet submarines, and then owning an underground bookstore, designing books and web sites, I returned to my original love of making beautiful things. I started Aberdeen Wood Shop, my small studio, in the basement of a liquor store in Brighton, Mass. First in a storefront, and now exhibiting, yearly, at the Allston/Brighton Winter Market, my focus remains on crafting beautiful things for the Kitchen, Office and Home out of salvaged and reclaimed wood.
Beautiful things that create a foundation for poetic living.
words + music
When I served in the Navy chasing Soviet submarines and white whales, I was never sure whether I was Ahab, Starbuck, Ishmael, or even Fletcher Christian. Still, Melville and I crossed the same tropical seas. But I only heard the sea monsters he sought. Now, I listen to sound that loiters at the edge of dissonance and silence, writing poetry and prose hand-crafted with all 26 letters.
When I served in the Navy chasing Soviet submarines and white whales, I was never sure whether I was Ahab, Starbuck, Ishmael, or even Fletcher Christian. Still, Melville and I crossed the same tropical seas. But I only heard the sea monsters he sought. Now, I listen to sound that loiters at the edge of dissonance and silence, writing poetry and prose hand-crafted with all 26 letters.