They called me “The Kid”. Not because I showed great potential, but because I was only 21 when they hired me. They brought me on because I knew the computer, which was a good thing, because I didn’t know anything else.

“They” were two gentleman art directors who’d risen through the ranks at a top agency during the Golden Age of Advertising. At the time, the design scene was experiencing a seismic shift—typesetters, color separators, dark room specialists, retouchers, and other old school graphic professionals were quickly being replaced by software.

I was fortunate to have fallen in the overlap between analog and digital, so I learned the old school graphic arts, even as they were becoming obsolete. Technical pens, markers, and t-squares may have been left behind, but the deeper, timeless lessons in quality and creativity sure stuck.

Time and trend took their toll on the partners’ business, and eight years later, I was laid off. I figured I’d freelance to bridge the gap before finding another design job, but clients and projects kept coming in, and well, here I am, over 25 years later.

When I first started out, the ad scene at its zenith. Those were the days of Nike’s “Just Do It” and Apple’s “Think Different” campaigns, legendary work created by legendary agencies. It was the party to end all parties, a party to which I had a legitimate invite, but it felt like as soon as I showed up, everyone left.

So I threw my own party.