davejohnsonart

Generation X Is Getting Old…

2011-05-13T11:40:00.000-07:00

"Well You Say I'm Twenty Something And Should Be Slacking

But I'm Working Harder Than Ever And You Could Call It Macking"

Sure Shot – The Beastie Boys

That lyric meant a lot to me way back in the late '90's when that Beastie Boys album came out. I remember hearing it and thinking; "Yeah, I work hard as hell!" I was 26. I just graduated college, I got married, and I was working full-time at kinko's while I self-published my comic books. Everyone I knew was getting married, working hard full-time jobs, finishing college and/or going to grad school, having kids and turning into responsible adults; all while pursuing their own dreams… one of my buddies is a filmmaker, one performs in a punk band, another was a store manager by the time he turned 25. I never knew a lot of "slackers" and I found the term insulting. My generation (Generation X) were very mislabeled as a bunch of do-nothings; when in fact the opposite was true; we learned that we could hold down a "McJob" while working towards our dreams.

The lessons I learned about business while I published my comics changed the way I approached my "day job"; graphic design. My wife even uses her experience from grad-school in her eventual day job running a non-profit.

And now we're graying and watching the next generation come up. So far we have been much more forgiving to this current crop of kids than our parents were to us. We're showing our kids that "doing nothing" can sometimes be "doing everything". Time spent working a crap job can also give your imagination enough fuel to create the thing you have passion for; poems can be written while washing dishes, songs composed while parking cars. I thought of many comics ideas while I sat at the counter at kinko's.

Back then I spent all of my spare time working on my books. Even as the publishing world stopped being a viable option for me, I still used my creative energies towards writing and drawing professionally. Because I had the guts to sit at a comics convention table and sell my books to strangers, I would later have the strength to go to Chicago and sell my creative ability to consumer product companies on my own.

And now as I turn 40, I'm looking back at my previous creative "night job" as a valuable outlet. I've since re-started my comic book publishing entity. I'm not quitting my job at LPK (yet), but somehow along the way I figured out how to enjoy my "day job" and have just enough energy to enjoy being forever 14 years old doing what I love.

Ask yourself "What do I love to do?" How much time you you devote to it? I think it's the key to staying young inside while taking care of your obligations in life. We won't live in this world forever. How much of that time would you want to spend NOT doing the thing that you love just as much as you do with the people you care about? I'm lucky in that I don't have many "regrets" so far. I didn't go to Europe in my 20's, I never even went to Spring Break; but I can say that I worked very hard and kept myself sane by loving a very good woman, and staying true to the person I am inside.

Stay young, and "slack" with a purpose!

Samsung Galaxy Tab Review

2010-12-20T11:22:00.001-08:00

I bought a Galaxy Tab about 3 weeks ago. I've had the chance to use it "in the wild" for a while. The main question I get asked about it is "why buy this device and not an ipad"? The 1st answer is that I travel a lot. Having a device that's small enough to fit into my pocket is optimal. I carry this thing with me everywhere. I'm writing this blog post on it thanks to the Blogger app for Android. The device is more like a big phone than a "small ipad". The main attribute I've noticed is that I get a lot of stares using this thing. I take it with me when I go to the store with my wife or to meetings at work. People are definitely curious about it. I'm writing this from a hospital waiting room; people are kinda craning their necks to get a look at the thing I'm pecking away on.

It ships with Android 2.2 and did a quick sys update when I powered it on. This is my first Android device and I have to say its a bit of a weird change from my blackberry or my ipod touch. The overall software architecture is different. Its more open and the interface is way more customizable. In minutes I had my apps loaded and interface tweaked to fit my taste. Although Android does a few things much better than iOs, I did install a "mac osx" skin called ADW Launcher that mimics the look and feel of a mac.

It's great having the ability to go online and use web pages as they were intended: including adobe flash (more on this later). Many of the apps that I use on my bb or ipod are available for Android with only a few exceptions (like Air Video or Eyetv). I assume they are on the way. Also; since this is still launch time, there are a few Android apps that are still "phone apps" so they do not fit properly on the tablet. Also, Android apps do not scale up phone apps to fit the tablet like iOs does .

The camera is pretty sweet. Here's a pic I took with it:
I haven't tried video chatting with it yet. I've also found another great and handy use for this thing. Yesterday I was at my drawing table. I needed some photo reference so I just jumped on google and found a photo and drew my picture with my tab sitting next to me right at my table; no need to go to my mac and print the image out! Doesn't sound like much, but it's a great way to save paper and toner!

As for Flash; in short it SUCKS! Even on this device. Pages with just some flash banner ads and such load fine and do not cause much of a problem. Pages with heavy flash animations or use flash as the basis of the layout are unbearably slow! I tried using Comixology's website to buy some online comics, the web-based flash page literally won't load without VERY long delays. I took to screen capturing the pages on my mac and then making them into a pdf so I can read them on my device.

An interesting side note; I went to a page that could not load Flash player and I got this message:

What's weird is that this message is what appears whether you're on an Apple product or not.

There are a few things that annoy me with my new purchase; I can't find a "case-folio" for it that does not look like a woman's purse or just doesn't suck altogether. I'm really jealous of my wife's Apple-branded ipad case. It looks great and stands the device on its own. Apple did a great job making great accessories for their devices at launch; so I'm waiting for somebody to design a case that doesn't suck. I also hate that Samsung went the way of a proprietary usb cable, which required me to buy another one to keep at work. I've had to come back to work a few times because I left it in the office. I also hate the fact that it does not charge via usb on your computer; it has to be plugged into an outlet to charge.

Overall I do love this thing. I did play around with my wife's ipad for a while and I like it, but I like the better portability of a 7 inch device alot more. I can fit it into a pocket at home or on the go. The next time I fly, this will be easier to handle on a plane than a laptop or even an ipad would be. I give it a 9/10 stars rating (whatever the hell that means!)

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The Why of it All

2010-11-08T06:30:00.000-08:00

At our 3rd Quarter Meeting last week, our Chief Creative Officer asked all of us at LPK to figure out individually "Why we do what we do". I didn't take long to figure out my reason: I do what I do because I'm intensely curious and I love a challenge. I never planned to get into what I do for a living; life just kinda' took me in that direction. However, in many ways, I've been doing the same thing since I was 12 years old. The only difference between now and then is that I've added skills and have gotten better at what I do along the way. And my client list has grown along the way too.

So far in my pro career I've done a combination of all of these jobs:
• Comic Book Artist
• Comic Book Publisher
• Photographer's Assistant/Darkroom Tech
• Graphic Designer
• Storyboard Artist
• Commercial Illustrator
• Photo Retouching
• Consumer Product Concepts
• Consumer Product Designer
• Motion Graphics
• Instructor
• Who the hell knows next…

I love waking up the next morning and asking myself "What's new for me to do today?"

I like to divine the difference between "process-oriented" thinkers and "results-oriented" thinkers. These ends of the spectrum are marked as MAINTENANCE and INVENTION.

Maintenance is the state in which a system is kept in motion through pre-planned processes. Some people are great at maintenance. Give them a system that works and they'll keep that system going… as long as the factors involved in the system don't change.

Inventors are people who try to see beyond the problems in front of them in order to create a solution that makes the problem obsolete. In short: a maintenance guy replaces a light bulb; an inventor creates a light bulb that does not need to be replaced.

As a person, you can be process-oriented in some things and results-oriented in others. In general I’m a results guy. I can think of 50 ways to solve a problem, and I can adapt, invent, incorporate the new, and adjust my techniques as the problem evolves. It’s the evolution of learning a new process, incorporating those results into my array and then discovering the new that keeps me alive. I also get very bored when a set of problems evolves from an invention phase to a maintenance phase. At that point I leave it to those who are best at maintenance; not that I’m too good to do it; in the long run I’m just not very good at it.

So that brings me to now. As I write this I’m on a plane on another trip for my employer. In the 7 years I’ve been here I’ve gone from a role player in very large and complicated teams to what I really do best; explore! I get to go places many in my company don’t get to go. I get to speak to people and form relations that most do not. I get to direct projects, contribute at any stage of others and keep myself busy… inventing! All doing the same basic skill I learned how to do at 5 years old; I draw pictures of stuff!

I would advise all young prospects in the creative business to make it their goal towards freedom; not titles, status or even money. All those things will come in time, but the most rewarding is the ability to do what you’re good at in the way that you know how to do it best.

Stay hungry and learn how to explore!

Design Scams!

2010-07-20T10:10:00.001-07:00

"Trust built on nothing is a con."

–David Johnson

I am a professional designer of 20 or so years by now. Many of those years were spent grinding away in the Chicago market as a freelancer. In that time I dealt with ALOT of companies. Some were very large, some very small, most were in the middle. Most were legitimate; and a few were a bit iffy. Like many talent-related businesses, there are many war stories about gullible professionals who have been taken advantage of by scammers, dreamers, incompetents, and just plain dirty people.

When it comes to scoping out new clients, here are a few rules I've developed over the years:

1) NEVER apply to a "blind box" ad.

I've heard that some companies use blind box replies to "keep prospects from calling them all day about the job". These are the classified ads that do not mention the name of the company, a phone number, or even a contact name.

Blind Box Ads are BULLSHIT!

A legit company will let you know who they are and will take an initial phone call; even if it's to say that they don't take phone calls and they'll call you back if they're interested.

I've found that blind boxes serve a great purpose to scammers. If you are marginally talented and are in need of fresh ideas to steal; what could be better than to place a "Designers Wanted" ad in your newspaper and watch all the free ideas come into your post office box! And the best part is that those who have sent in their portfolios don't even know that they have been ripped off, so the scammers can do this over and over again! Never send a portfolio to anyone without knowing who you are sending it to.

2) Always check out a company before you go in for an interview or accept a job offer.

This is self-explanatory. You need to know a lot about a company before you even step in the door. Talk to other pros in your area; have they worked with this company before? Do they know anyone there? Word gets around pretty quick if someone's doing shady business. Larger cities have it much harder, but Google works, my friend! If some person out of the blue contacts you about some work (freelance or otherwise), Google their ass! This goes even further if said company makes a job offer.

I moved to northern Indiana fresh out of college. I accepted a job offer from a small but storied phone book studio in Mishawaka without doing ANY homework first (if you live in the area, you know EXACTLY who I'm talking about). First, they asked me to do a "camp out" which is to work for them for a day without PAY (Mistake #1). Next they offered me the job, so I gave notice at kinko's (my job at the time). Two weeks later I showed up for my first day at the agency, only to be turned away; the Art Director wasn't there and they weren't ready for me to start or some complicated BS. This went on every day for about a week before I got the hint; the job offer wasn't legit. I went back to kinko's the next week only to find out that EVERYONE there knew that this agency was known for this kind of stuff. They had scammed every printer in town, were known for offering to trade ads and designs for goods and services*, and were known to offer bogus jobs to young and stupid prospects just to get free design work from them. They also tried to get their paid employees to work off the clock (i.e. WalMart). Somehow this company is still in business.

*The owner of the company would personally offer to trade services with a local restaurant. Many years later I happened to be there when he loudly argued with the owner of the restaurant in front of his family and the crowd. The restaurant was tired of giving him food for free!

3) Watch out for the Bait And Switch

Here's the scenario; you get a call for a gig. The gig is supposed to be X amount of design work for Y amount of money for Z amount of time. You accept and show up as asked. Once there, they try to argue you to do X amount of MORE work for Y amount LESS money, or for LESS Z amount of time than you need to get it done. If the gig smells like this, don't argue, don't bargain, just leave. Trust me; you'll be lucky if you get paid at all.

4) ALWAYS offer a written estimate with a Deposit and a KILL FEE!!

When you start a gig with someone you don't know, send them an estimate in writing with a kick-off deposit and a kill fee. The deposit is what they pay you after they agree to terms and BEFORE you do a thing! The kill fee is what you charge if for some reason the company tried to get out of the project without finishing it. The total amount of these fees should be about half of the whole estimate. (i.e. the whole job is $5,000: $1,250 is the project deposit, and another $1,250 is the kill fee). This is to cover your expenses at kick off and is insurance that the company isn't going to bail on you without paying ANYTHING once the job is done. Also, the phrases "deposit" and "kill fee" are kryptonite for scammers. They know you have some idea of what you're doing and probably won't call you back to kick off the project in the 1st place (win!)

5) How to Spot A "Dreamer"

A dreamer is somebody that offers you a gig with the promise of a partnership or percentage of what they hope the project will be worth sometime in the future. I design consumer product packaging (www.davejohnsonart.com) I can't tell you how many of these e-mails I get from folks who think they have "The Next Oxi-Clean®" or some such junk. They have no money to pay me with, but will give me X% of what they will eventually sell of this wonder product!!!

Here's the truth; if somebody is legit; they'll pay you for your services… PERIOD.

They will not offer the dream of infinite wealth in exchange for your professional work.

6) Avoid the "Shotgun Agency"

I saved this one for last for a great reason. I needed to explain the previous points as they are examples of "short cons" designers have to deal with. The Shotgun Agency is a long con. They are companies that rent an office in a small to medium sized space, have been in business under a year but have LOTS of awesome brand new rented Herman Miller furniture. The owners are also from someplace else, but moved to your town for X reason. Also, none of the principals have any of their personal stuff in the office (VERY BIG CLUE). Most importantly, no one but the owners are much above 20 years old… These are warning signs! An agency like this has all the familiar symptoms of a company that is here one day and gone the next. These companies setup in a new town, go around offering their services under-cutting the competing agencies; get a few contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, "hire" talent to help them do the work, and once the clients start paying, they skip town… without paying any of their workers, or their office rent, or the lovely rented Herman Miller furniture, or most importantly YOU! I can't tell you how many of these places I've interviewed with only to call back a month later and get a disconnected signal. If you accept any work from them, get paid up front or LEAVE. You may never see them again after the work is done!

In my years as a pro; I haven't been burned a lot, but I've had a few close calls. I lost more time than money, and I know enough to avoid most of the pitfalls out there. I never accept work without an agreed written estimate first, with all the terms spelled out and deliverables understood between both parties. I always ask for a deposit and a kill fee, and I'm rarely turned down by legit companies. As I mentioned before; those who are less than legit run away quickly. If you have been scammed in the past; know that you are not alone. Use your best judgment when approached and utilize the internet, my friend! There are a lot of people out there who will pay what you are worth, so don't just turn everyone down.

Do your homework, do good work, get paid.

A Decade in the Top Tier… The End?

2010-02-25T12:16:00.000-08:00

Continued…
LPK arranged for a relocation expert to find suitable apartment candidates, we made a trip a few weeks earlier to look at them. We picked one, started packing and I gave notice to my clients that I will no longer be a freelancer. I got a lot of "good bye and good luck" e-mails and I also said good bye to my friends in South Bend. The change would be welcome. I spent 7 years in Northern Indiana; add another 1 1/2 for my wife. She finished college in 4 years, she went straight to grad school that summer. It took me a bit longer to finish undergrad and move to Indiana to be with her. Although I have many friends there, I don't miss that place. Too small, too cold, nothing to do except go to Chicago. I was on my way from living in a small town to moving to a "Weather Map City"; which are the ones that are shown on TV when the weather guy goes to a map of the country.
June 9th 2003; Estelle and I threw all of our crap into a 14 ft. U-haul truck and made the 5 hour drive for the last time from South Bend, IN to Cincinnati, OH. As we left the city limits, I said to her; "Hey look, South Bend in our rear view mirror!" She smiled as she nervously drove the truck with the car attached (I don't drive… don't ask). I kept listening for a crash from it disconnecting (it didn't!) and we made our way to Ohio in record time.
We got to our new apartment building and unpacked our cats and some of our stuff. I called Papa John's for pizza as we tried to calm the cats down. Satchel (my dear departed buddy) took the move quite well. He loved strangers and new things so my only regret was that I didn't put him in my lap instead of a cat carrier on the trip; he would have loved looking out of the windows.
The next Monday I woke up at 6am, got dressed and walked downtown to LPK for my first day at the new job. I got there around 8am… no one was there yet. Eventually I met my new manager and got to work; the first of what would be 7 years so far.
I've never seen or worked at a place with so many people who were SO good at what they do. This is a sometimes intimidating group of the best professionals in this industry; our reputation is well-deserved. I spent the next year or so working in Beauty Care. I later worked in Surface Care for 4 years, and I've been assigned to Baby Care for the last 2. Most of my assignments have been for P&G with a few stops on Technology, Food, and a lot of misc. accounts.
The last 10 years have been terrifying, exciting, a thrill, and a dread; I've physically injured myself, I've had migraine headaches, and I've met some of the most incredible professionals a person could know. I've had way more days where I could not wait to get to work than the opposite. I have passion for what I do, and that passion is met and challenged every day by the people I work with. The term "Top Tier" might sound a bit arrogant; but it really does fit the people I've met and things I've worked on. I've designed products that sit on shelves in countries I've never been. I've managed design and production with equal effectiveness; due to the wealth of knowledge I've earned over the years.
I look forward to what the next 10 years will bring with a real sense of optimism. I hope that in the near future I can keep you entertained with my musings about the state of affairs in brand design.
Thank you kindly for reading this.
Dave Johnson.
www.twitter.com/davejohnsonart

A Decade In The Top Tier… Part Four

2010-02-24T14:00:00.001-08:00

Continued…
Spring 2003; I had spent the last 3 years freelancing in Chicago from South Bend, IN. I found success way faster than I thought I would, and the time came to find some stability after 3 years of lost invoices, sporadic workloads, and crammed all-nighters.
I worked with so many great people at some great companies and maintain contact with many of them to this day. I managed to keep my workload going during 9/11; during the stock market implosion of 2002, and in spite of the fact that the local area I lived in at the time had almost NO market for top-tier creative; I might as well had been a ventriloquist dummy salesman.
Basically I did the impossible; but I knew that I was pressing my luck continuing to freelance. All during the time I freelanced, I kept an eye on jobs in the Chicago market. I interviewed at a medium-sized toy company in Chicago as a Design Director. The gig looked promising; and it would have been a lot of fun; my background in comics and illustration would have made me a perfect candidate. They wanted to pay me based on what I made at my last full-time job; not what I made as a freelancer (approx. twice as much at the time!) So no deal! I also interviewed at a whole bunch of small/medium sized companies, and I even put feelers out at my clients. Although things picked up after 2002, nobody wanted to hire quite yet. Nobody except LPK!

I sent resumes to every recruiter I could find. One guy forwarded my resume to a company that did recruiting for LPK. I got a call out of the blue from one of their reps. She told me about a great gig in Cincinnati… here's what went through my mind: I'm black. Cincinnati had just had a RACE RIOT in 2001. The NAACP had a national ban on this city at the time; maybe coming here was not such a great idea.

Then I checked out LPK's website:
LPK (Libby Perszyk Kathman) is an international design agency headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA with four additional locations in Geneva, Switzerland; Frankfurt, Germany; Guangzhou, China; and London, England. According to its website [1], LPK specializes in “Building Leadership Brands” by integrating strategy, design and innovation.

I remembered this company's work! One of the things I used to do for Unilever was create illustrations of P&G products for comparison. I was intimately familiar with their Hair and Personal Care products in particular–LPK is the company that designed those P&G products! I set a date to drive the 5 hours South to meet with Robert Remley; the VP of Technology for the company. He expressed an interest to hire me for their Baby Care line; again I assume my background in comics and kid's stuff made me a perfect candidate.
The company had just created a new position: Design Delineator. This position is very challenging; a perfect candidate has upstream design experience as well as a production background. We were "Designers Plus" which meant that my job is to be "very good at everything". One of the things that frustrated me about my concept work was that it was ONLY upstream; I never got to continue working on the product once it passed consumer testing. Working at this company would give me a chance to "finish" the concepts I started; I was intrigued. Also; I never saw design and production to be different jobs. All of my career I always did my own "nipping and tucking". I always created my own designs and then got it ready for print on my own.
So here I am about to walk away from 3 years of freelancing to work at the very company that did design for all of my client's competitors. I had to come back three more times; once for another interview, and twice to "freelance" for LPK; kind of a "try before they buy". The last freelance day (which was a Friday), Robert called me to his office and let me know that they were going to make an offer to my recruiter; I passed the test! About a month later I moved from South Bend, IN to Cincinnati, OH.
Continued…

A Decade in the Top Tier… Part Three

2010-02-24T10:59:00.001-08:00

Continued…
Late summer 2000, I met with two people at Unilever's Wells St location; let's call them Clark & Bruce. They sat me down and showed me the creative deck for a variety of Suave shampoos; this was my initiation. I knew next to nothing about Packaged Consumer Products! Again, I learned by doing! Over time a variety of Unilever brand managers filled my in box with one concept request after another.
This was everything I dreamed it would be! The work was steady, but the lifestyle of a freelancer was a lot to get used to. I was not used to the invoice cycle; do the work, send an invoice, wait 30 days, get paid… if there were no problems! Otherwise you had to wait, and wait, and wait for your money. Guess who doesn't wait? The phone bill, the light bill, the rent, etc. etc. Money was a constant juggling act; sometimes the phone got "disconnected"; it was fun! Estelle was a grad student at the time, so she didn't make any money. We were solely dependent on what I made.
Not long after starting to work for Unilever; TaigMarks Advertising, a local agency called me up. I had interviewed there earlier in the year; the creative director asked me if I was still interested in a job. I informed him that I just started doing freelance work in Chicago, so I wasn't looking for a full-time job at the moment. This was another cross-road for me; a person with sense would have taken the slight but steady pay increase at the small local agency, instead of continuing a freelance relationship that might lead to a very good gig one day. I chose to continue freelancing, but I freelanced for TaigMarks as well. My daily workload was a russian roulette but, needless to say, Unilever got top priority. When they needed me to come into the city; it was instantly 8 hours of billable time, and their hourly rate was double what anyone in SB could pay me (it would later become triple). Much to the chagrin of my local clients; everyone else would get my time based on who asked after Unilever.
It wasn't all gravy though; even though I was relatively young, I had NO insurance. Estelle had some insurance through Notre Dame, but I would not have any until after I left freelancing. I had no dental insurance, and TAXES… to this day I am still paying for the back taxes I owed from freelancing (although I hope to be done soon). But still it was awesome getting to work on some of America's biggest brands: Suave, Dove, ThermaSilk, Q-tips which led to Wisk, All, Snuggle, Ben & Jerry's, Breyers; virtually all of Unilever's catalog. Two of their offices (Chicago and Greenwich, CT) were giving me work. I earned a reputation as "The Concept Guy".
Somewhere in late 2001 I got a referral to Millward Brown Marketing Research to create some graphics for them.

In early 2002 Bruce gave me a call again. He left Unilever and started working at Quaker so he brought me in with him. I did some concept work for Quaker Instant Oatmeal and eventually a lot of their special foods, supplements, and beverages. By summer 2002 I did some storyboard concepts for Kraft Foods… my dance card was very full. By this time I pretty much "fired" all of my local clients. For the last year and a half in South Bend I no longer had any substantial assignments in Indiana. By this time, I was so busy at home, I rarely needed to go into the city unless it was for a focus group, or a brainstorm… or both!
Working at home has many great advantages; the commute was as far as my bed to my home studio. I set my own schedule (which was still 9-5, I worked when my clients worked). But I could adjust; I could take a nap in the middle of the day (which I did a lot); but I'd also work all-nighters if I had to.
2003; although I made a whole lot more money on paper, the lack of insurance, getting further behind on my taxes, and the constant lookout for the repo truck made me realize I needed to go back to work full-time again. After three successful years as a freelancer; I started to put out feelers again; time to get a J-O-B!!
Continued…

A Decade in the Top Tier… Part Two

2010-02-23T12:04:00.001-08:00

Continued:
I gave notice at The Tire Rack months in advance. The original plan was to move to Atlanta, GA.
Estelle and I were tired of living in the frigid Midwest and Atl is close to our hometown (10 years later and we're still in the Midwest). So earlier that spring I flew to Atlanta and interviewed at a bunch of places. Some were very promising, some not so much… just about ALL of them did not offer me a job. When I got back to Indiana I looked around at the local design companies there (most did RV catalogs, most were terrible, and NONE of them offered me a job!)
This is the part of the story where a person with sense would have just gone back to work at The Tire Rack and stayed there. The gig was good, I had lots of creative freedom, and the people were very nice; if not a little bit old-fashioned. The problem was that I was terribly bored working there. Most of the time I just looked online at all the creative gigs in "real" cities and wished I were there instead.
So the summer of 2000, I went to Chicago with my portfolio in hand. I interviewed at The Buzz Company; a creative resource downtown. They looked at my stuff; gave me their skills test, and sent me on my way. Before I left, one of their associates told me "I have a client that you might be perfect for". Sweet! I didn't hear from her again until much later that summer.
In the meantime I interviewed at a small design company out in Broadview, IL. The company was Trisect Design, the owner offered me a job as an Art Director. To my surprise, he was a car guy; so he'd seen a lot of my work already - bonus! I worked on designs for Bosch, Barton Brands, Mexitronica, and a whole lot of local stuff. This is a newsletter I did for them; it's still on their website!
I started working for him by July, but I ended up leaving about a month later for two reasons:

#1. Estelle and I could not afford quite yet to move to Chicago, so I rode the South Shore everyday that summer. Here was my daily schedule

4:30am Wake up.
5:30am Catch train to Chicago. Sleep on train some more. (Yes, it was 3 hours–per trip!)
8:30am Get to Randolph St. Station/take Blue Line to Forrest Park
8:45am Get off at Forrest Park station, wait for bus
9:00am Catch bus out to Broadview
9:30am Arrive in Broadview, walk 3 more blocks to Trisect
9:45am Arrive at Trisect
5:30pm Leave Trisect, walk to bus stop
5:45pm Arrive at bus stop
6pm Arrive at Forrest Park station – catch train
6:15pm Arrive downtown – walk to Randolph St station
6:30pm to 7pm Wait for South Shore train, hope I had some money for a snack.
7pm Get on South Shore train
10pm Arrive in South Bend
10:15pm Arrive home (Estelle would pick me up)
10:30pm Eat dinner
11pm Go to bed
Do it all again the next day.

I kept this up for about 6 weeks. Despite the craziness, the main reason I quit this job was for reason #2

#2 The "client" that The Buzz Company spoke of finally called them back 2 months later. They were working on a new testing procedure and they needed someone with a background in both design and illustration to assist them. The lady told me the name of the client: Unilever. I had NO idea who they were, so I googled them:

Unilever is a Dutch-British multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. Unilever employed 174,000 people and had a worldwide revenue of €40.5 billion in 2008.

It was a very BIG company. She said they needed someone who could draw products as well as storyboard illustrations of people using them. They also needed someone who could imagine products that don't exist yet. They also needed the artist to give them the drawings in very fast turnaround… like a day. My thinking at the time was that doing this type of work freelance would make it easy for me to get a "real" job at a big agency. With much more trepidation, I took the gig and resigned at Trisect.
Continued…

A Decade in the Top Tier… Part One

2010-02-17T14:15:00.000-08:00

As the decade rolls into 2010; I'm feeling the need to write about the last 10 years of my career. I've been a creative professional all of my adult life; starting when I was 17 as the only high-school student intern at The State Newspaper in my hometown Columbia, SC. To this day I have no formal Graphic Design education; everything I know how to do comes from experience, patience, and trying very hard to learn something new all the time. I have tried to possess little fear of the unknown. I was never trained how to use any of the programs that I intimately know how to use now. The answer is that you learn a little bit at a time, and translate what you know into what you are trying to learn.

The year was 1989, and the digital design field was still very young. I spent the next 5 summers (1 in high school, 4 in college) learning as much as possible about the Macintosh, and what a creative mind could do with it! Design was my backup plan; as I aspired to draw comic books professionally. In 1996 moved to Indiana to marry my long-time girlfriend Estelle. She was a grad-student at Notre Dame. I self-published my comics while I worked at Kinko's. By '97 the comics market completely imploded (again) and I went to my "backup" career full time. By 1998, I started working at Cadre Athletic (or whatever they call themselves now) as a designer. I stayed there for 6 months and quit after a fall-out with the art director. This job was notable as it was my first experience creating designs for a national market (albeit a very small one). Between jobs I went to Chicago to meet Seitu Hayden. For those who don't know of him; Seitu is a seasoned kick-ass illustrator who's drawn storyboards and created illustrations for all of Chicago's major ad and design companies for 30 or so years now. I met him through one of my wife's professors at Notre Dame. I took the South Shore train into the city and met him at his studio. Seitu gave me some of the best pointers a pro could give an aspiring pro. I went back to South Bend determined to make it one day as a pro artist in Chicago.
I still felt that I was not yet ready to step up to the big leagues, so I found a position at The Tire Rack doing ads for every major "car guy" magazine in the country as well as on every major website for car enthusiasts. This was my first experience creating work that people cared about; as the car guys out there are very vocal and energetic towards the work we did.

In the year I spent there, the Marketing Director gave me more and more leeway in what I could do creatively; my best work there was "self directed". I did a series of ads and print materials that were "storyboards"; the joke in the office was that I just re-did the "A-ha Take on Me" video in print form.

I used my year at The Tire Rack wisely; working on branding initiatives for Michelin, Goodyear, Pirelli, Firestone & Bridgestone (yes I was there during the SUV roll-over debacle). I met Al Unser Jr. I designed trade and specialty ads for every major tire and wheel brand that exists, and I learned a lot about dealing with clients; speaking to them in their language, and paying very close attention to the "mechanics" of the business – no pun intended. This business lives and dies by having your finger on the pulse of what your target wants; not just what your client is trying to sell. I remained there from Spring 1999 until the summer of 2000; when after some long deliberation, I set out to Chicago seeking a gig as a designer/illustrator.
Continued Soon.

Changes to the blog

2009-12-28T12:05:00.000-08:00

Hi;
I've deleted all previous posts to this blog, as I'm going to make it more "design & business-centric".
All future posts relating to art, comics, and the like will go here:
http://stellar-comics.blogspot.com
Thanks!
Dave