Portfolio Day 1...

When I got into the closet and found those old barn drawings, I also flipped through a couple old portfolios. I tend to forget what I've done and sometimes it's nice to look back... and sometimes I even impress myself a bit (which is almost impossible!!!). When I left my art teacher position and moved to Columbus, Ohio after I got engaged to Craig, I also wanted to pursue my illustration professionally. We got our first computer after we were married and I was just playing around with it, seeing what I could do. Here's the drawing I did:

I was and am a huge lover of architecture. I don't know why I didn't consider it except that I have a fear of math and knew all the engineering involved. I tend to worship architects.

During that time my old boss from Reporter Typographics called and said they wanted to do promo postcards and asked if I would do their illustrations? I put myself through half of my college working as a layout artist and typesetter. It's amazing I did as well as I did in my college classes...I'd go straight from class to work until 9pm, go home and eat dinner, then do all my homework and projects. Ah, to be young again and have that much energy!! But I learned so much from working there and my freshman foundation courses in Graphic Design (I was one of only 33 to be accepted to the program...so was Caroline!), that it helped me get my first professional full time job in advertising! (I always tell my kids that hard work pays off... I got a 4.0 in High School just because of hard work!)

To make extra money while looking for an illustration position, I worked temporary jobs and one of those was as a receptionist for BSB/Leff & Squicciarini Advertising and Public Relations!!! Try saying that fast every time the phone rings!!! Of course it didn't take long for them to know that I was looking for illustration work (after they offered me the receptionist job and I turned it down). One of the senior designers asked to see my portfolio and ended up showing it to Larry Squicciarini, the Creative Director, who liked what he saw. That's when I got the brilliant idea to ask them if I could work for them for two weeks for free, just to see what advertising was all about. Larry is far from stupid and immediately said yes. I was to get his recommendation when I left and went other places. Well, no one there knew I was working for free because they did use freelancers all the time. One night while working on something for a Wendy's account, which is always a bear, I mentionned that I was just doing this as a kind of intern position without pay and Alan couldn't believe they'd been working me to death for free! By the end of the two weeks they made me a job offer and that was one of the most fun jobs I've ever had but also the most demanding. I was newly married but working nights and weekends. I knew it wasn't forever but I learned so much and Larry got a pretty inexpensive illustrator on board! Larry liked to be our "Dad". A lot of us were young and starting out in life. He married later in life and never had children. He would take us all out to lunch and drive by big expensive homes and tell us to look in the windows as we passed. No furniture. He warned us of being house poor which in the early 90's we saw a lot of. He was a very interesting man who really wanted to be a painter. He once took a photography tour of Scotland and his photos were fabulous. I bought one for mom for her birthday. But he came back and complained about all the rain!!! Ha! I used to laugh at him all the time. I do miss him and wonder what he's doing today. Their agency had been bought out by Bates Advertising out of NYC before I started working there and was shifting more that way as they went global and then I left, with Craig, for Pennsylvania.

Here's a couple things I illustrated during that time:

An ad for the state of Ohio...

Lots and lots of Wendy's Advertising!! Dublin, Ohio is Wendy's headquarters and we were their ad agency. I would even design signage in Japanese!! (and no, I don't know Japanese).


So that's just a little bit of my past. It's fun to think of all the different people I've met along the way and the things I've seen.

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This has been a really hard day-- we are dealing with some big decisions at home and it was nice to turn my attention to a little bit of happy stuff. Hopefully life is about to get a little easier...I'll tell you soon.

xoxo Bethany