Sometimes, life changes your well-laid plans.

As many of you may know, I was accepted into the International MFA program at the Basel School of Design in Basel, Switzerland. Classes start this fall and my wife and I moved out of our house and sold many of our possessions to prepare to move overseas.

About three months ago, we applied for our Swiss visas (official permission from the government to live in Switzerland). We were told by multiple people that the visas would not be too difficult to obtain because I was accepted by a Swiss school and my wife could get a visa because I was going to be a student. Six weeks ago, we unfortunately found out differently.

My student visa has been approved, but there became some major issues with my wife’s visa. Because we are not Swiss citizens or citizens of a Schengen Agreement country, there are many restrictions on my wife’s ability to obtain a visa.

My wife is incredibly talented and has her Masters degree in a very useful field. She has been applying for jobs since March, but no offers have come. The Swiss government makes it difficult to hire someone outside of Switzerland because the company must prove that a Swiss citizen nor a Schengen Agreement citizen (basically all of the EU) could not fill the open position. In some ways, it is a Catch-22 because it would be much easier to find a job if she was living in Switzerland, but she can’t live in Switzerland because she doesn’t have a job.

So, all of that said, I am saddened to announce that I will not be attending the Basel School of Design this fall. Obviously, this is not what we expected and it truly is disappointing, but we are choosing to look at this change of plans in the best light possible. 

We are looking at this upcoming year as a “bonus year” that we didn’t expect. I have already started working on two major projects that I have wanted to do for years, but could never find the time. One is a book of my Vernacular Typography Polaroids and the other is a documentary film on the Linotype machine.

In addition to these projects, my wife and I are looking into doing some work overseas. Why not? We are completely open. Which is both exciting and terrifying.