You may have read somewhere (oh, I don’t know…here?) that my first job in design was at a commercial sign company in Phoenix, AZ. I was working at an investment bank (trippy, right?) and didn’t have much real-world design experience.
One day the former bank president called me at the office and said he was starting a sign company and he needed to find a graphic designer as soon as possible. He knew I was “into art,” so maybe I knew someone?
“Yeah, I know me.”
I still don’t know what made me say that with S.C. Johnson’s safe paychecks keeping us fed and having no practical experience to speak of, but the next night we were discussing the opportunity over dinner.
Two weeks later, I was a Graphic Designer. The, uh, Senior and only Graphic Designer. I was in way over my head, but I picked up a lot of the nuts and bolts of handling digital files, ad agency practices, and creative client interaction over the next two years.
Wing and a prayer, baby.
That experience led to an opportunity at MTV in New York, so it was bye-bye Phoenix.
In some ways, my loss. I never became entrenched in the incredible creative community that PHX has to offer. When I was researching venues for my upcoming workshop, I heard about Phoenix Design Week and I started poking around. It looks really exciting, totally affordable, and contributes to Phoenix’s creative culture on a big scale.
So I decided to give something back to the community that got me started. I got in touch with Russ Perry of Keane Creative and he helped me shape my wobbly e-mail offer into something really cool.
I’m giving away a number of seats in my November workshop to lucky PHXDW attendees with a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory “Golden Ticket”-style pass, inserted randomly into swag bags. Exciting, fun, and right in line with the way I like to help creative people.
So thanks, Phoenix. And see you soon. We’ll have coffee.
