ORIGIN STORY OF JUST ANOTHER DESIGNER

The commercial design world presented itself to me at the ripe age of 12 when my history teacher, Mr D, asked if I would draw something for him regarding a local government position he was running for.

It wasn’t a campaign logo or some “Vote for Mr D” tchotchke. Nope. It was a political shot across the bow to his opponent. The request was Mickey Mouse clock with spinning clock hands. The message, this guy is a clown who’s just running out the clock.   

Whether it worked or not, I don’t know. KPIs and ROIs and the like were decades away from my vocabulary. But the potential to communicate an idea with my drawings opened up a whole new way of thinking.

This idea carried into high school. A friend and I would make fliers and hand them out in the halls. Troublemakers extraordinaire. These were inspired by punk rock flyers we saw at record stores. Crude, xerox, cut-and-paste style with random information; inside jokes, clippings from anarchy magazines, or some punk band lyric. This time I didn’t have a teacher supporting my creative endeavors. Quite the contrary.

I became involved in the Detroit area punk scene. Going to a show every weekend and sometimes twice. The music was the primary attraction, but I sure did love the flyers, tee shirts, and records. I began collecting and designing flyers for local shows. And then eventually designing flyers, records, and tees for my band.

Then I took the next typical step in any young troublemaker’s life: art school.