Poster by Joshua Berger & Gus Nicklos, plazm.com

On May 18, 2012, I was riding my bicycle to Liquid Agency, as I do most mornings. Eyewitness accounts are fuzzy, but apparently I swerved and hit the brakes to avoid some kind of obstruction, went flying over the handlebars, and did a face-plant on the pavement. My helmet probably saved my life. I sustained a “moderate to severe traumatic brain injury” (TBI), according to a medical report which I am now looking at. I was taken to OHSU, intubated, and given serial CT brain scans.

I don’t remember any of that. The first thing I remember was waking up in the brain rehab unit at Providence two weeks later. It has been a long road to recovery. I have had to re-learn a ton of basic things. Like walking. And not-so-basic things, like reading, writing, or creating a poster. I’m not fully functioning or returning to work yet, but I’m at the point where I can make public comments like this one.

I want to take a minute to thank all of the friends, family, past business associates, collaborators, acquaintances, compatriots, the list is so long. It is your support, well-wishes, thoughts, and energy which has given me the strength to put in the effort and work towards a full recovery. Really. It means the world to me, and to my family. Also a special thanks to my medical team, they have been amazing. I have a ways to go, but I am a lot better than I was four or five months ago. Just to illustrate, here’s a photo my wife took of a white board in my hospital room. Every day the nurses would write a list of things to try to accomplish that day. In the early days, it was a very short list. As you can see. I moved from the goal of “waking up” once a day to using a wheelchair, then a walker, then a cane. I still have the cane, but I can see the day in the near future where I will no longer need that.

My occupational and speech language pathologists challenged me to try to create a poster, or some other piece of design communication, so I made one for Mitt Romney. I know he has binders full of women, but clearly he needs all the help he can get in spreading his message of economic prosperity. I enlisted the assistance of my friend Gus Nicklos to collaborate and develop this Mittopoly poster. Thanks, Gus! Click the image above for a high resolution version. Please feel free to share and propagate this artwork as you see fit.

Thank you all again for the love, energy, and support. I look forward to seeing you, hugging you, talking with you, and collaborating with you in the near future.

Love

Josh