History
I have been working in the graphics industry for over two decades, and have taken on a wide variety of design challenges including print production, websites, wrestling uniforms, logos, and product labels. I work locally as well as remotely with clients all over the U.S., even a couple of projects abroad. Generally a project will begin with a phone or email conversation, followed by creation of a project plan, price quote and timeline, and the work begins.
Briefly, I graduated from SFCC with an AA degree, and have worked in various pre-press scenarios, service bureaus and print companies. I had a prepress shop in Spokane for 8 years or so and have been freelancing since about 2001.
Pasteup, Compugraphic and Compulsive Handwashing
While attending SFCC our program got one of the first Compugraphic computers that came out. It was a computer you could type code and text into, and the product was “galleys” of finished typeset columns on photographic paper. I had a work study gig in the graphic design department, and the most exciting thing we did was produce the SFCC Class Schedule. We would receive files transferred via modem (well kind of modem) from a Wang computer in the district office, and after the file was captured we ran it thru “translation tables” we had created to convert the code to something the Compugraphic could understand. This was bleeding edge stuff.
After graduating I worked for a rubber stamp company where here there were no such luxuries. We used a Compugraphic 7500. I can’t even remember how we coded the text on the screen so things came out the size and font we wanted, but I’ll never forget the negative filmstrip with actual letters and numbers on it we wrapped around a drum inside the machine (see pic — that exact machine). We selected the desired font strip and pinned both ends to a metal drum inside the machine. Depending on the font size, a light would move closer or further from the filmstrip and burn the image onto photographic paper on the other side of the strip. This process had sound effects similar to an auto body shop. The drum would spin loudly until the desired letter on the filmstrip was in front of the light source, clunk to stop, and a whirring-laser sound indicated light was being passed through the filmstrip. This was the process for each letter. After it was done “setting” the type we would remove the light-tight cartridge full of undeveloped photo paper from the compugraphic and feed it thru a “processor”. Developer, fix and water baths developed the film. The result was a long stream of photo paper varying in length from 2′ to 10′, by maybe 10 inches wide. At that point cut-and-paste training took over. Crazy.
I left the stamp company to work in a prepress/graphic design studio where there was much more contemporary Compugraphic equipment — digital. Soon after that the first Macs were put in our shop — I believe the Mac SE was our first one — sometime ’87-ish. And on it went from there, never stopping to let any of us take a breath. No wonder graphics people are a little quirky and enjoy downing a few cocktails at the end of each day — the learning curve has been a non-stop blur since the first Mac in the early 80′s.
In 1993 I started a prepress shop. We had a room full of Macs, all of the software an adobe reseller account could buy, and an “imagesetter”. We would receive files on disk (floppy, cd, zips, and other even more obscure media) from graphic designers all over town, open them on the mac and prep them according to the desired printer’s specs, and output them onto film used to make printing plates.
At some point I couldn’t ignore the website thing, I hated to be in the dust, and some people were building websites. About the time CSS became the buzz, for me that was around 1997, I bought Adobe PageMill 2.0 and dove in. A variety of software came and went — GoLive was my favorite. Now it’s all css, php and content management systems; raw code. “Thank you sir, may I have another?” comes to mind.
One thing is for sure, research has become part of my job, research and self-training. Google just may be the most important tool I have. I love this business. Always a challenge, sometimes downright scary. The next best thing to the Tremors roller coaster in Sandpoint — minus the depressing drive past Moses Lake.