Relax Your Mind

I can’t say that I miss working. I should say I still work, I just don’t do it for money anymore. It took a long time for us to retire. Some clients were hard to shake. I’ve been cleaning up our work room, putting the cds we used to write as back-ups into boxes that I will shove to the furthest reaches of the basement. And I thought I would round up a few of the logos we did. This took the better part of a day as I came across eps files I couldn’t open, cds that wouldn’t mount and files I just couldn’t find.

I especially liked creating logos. We would present a first round of ideas as sketches, a second round of revisions, re-workings, color choices and then a third round as a b&w, 2 color and four color vector file. People usually got something they liked.

You can charge pretty good for logos and sometimes come up with a winner in a flash. Or you could work all day and still not have anything worth showing. But I found if I walk away, take my mind off the project, hop in the shower or something – bang, there it would be. Sometimes I would get a good one right away, one that I was sold on, even though I wasn’t the client. So I might create a bunch of other clumsy alternatives just so the choice would be clear.

In 1987 Peggi and I started our own commercial art business called 4D Advertising. We did work for big and small companies as well as individuals. “Whatever comes along,” as we used to say. Our work evolved as the graphic arts field did, from paste-up to web design. This is one of many 4D logos we had over the years.

This Rochester company did a lot of industrial fabrication. I’m still hoping you can see “W” unfolding from the three “A”s.

Back in the nineties, before the internet, the Refrigerator was a local zine. Twenty eight print editions were produced before the website was launched. I spotted this lettering in Spain on a sign that read “SEBO.” I constructed the other characters. Thought about making a wood type version with Virgin Woodtype.

Magna Carta is a progressive rock label with artists such as Terry Bozio and Tony Levin.

I can’t remember what this organization did but it was connected to DuPont. Clean, corporate, generic.

Print Bid Online was a short-lived company that helped customers secure competitive printing quotes.

Pyramid Art Gallery moved uptown and changed its name to Rochester Contemporary

Before Atlas Eats and after Rochester Club, Gerry Brinkman ran Gerry’s.

Earring Records released albums by Personal Effects, Colorblind James, The Wilderness Family, Absolute Grey, SLT, The Essentials, Pete LaBonne and Invisible Idiot.

Joe Squared, in Baltimore, Maryland, makes square pizzas! I also came up with the slogan.

Clear Eye was a distributer of wholesale natural foods. It was such a kick to see tractor trailers with this logo on it.

Cylinder Sound, a state of the art studio located behind the Bug Jar, became the home of JoyWave.

Owner Tom Kohn asked me to base the Bop Shop logo on an old record cover. The “Bop Shop” type face came from a sheet of press type. I used the same font and the same sheet of press type, for the Freetime logo.

Alliance Barter grew out of the Rochester Trade Exchange. Companies who joined were paid in trade dollars which they could spend at any of the other members’ businesses. Of course the Exchange took a cut. We bought some Oriental Rugs and kitchen appliances with the money.

We did a lot of work for Customericity and DuPont. As I remember, this organization was one that many different companies would join for some altruistic reason.

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