Graphic Design

My origins are in printing production (prepress)—typesetting, camera/scanning, stripping, and proof and platemaking. My first job in this area was in the summer of 1977 when I worked as a photo-typesetter for the Canal Fulton, Ohio weekly newspaper—The Signal. It was there on my first day that someone told me, “Whatever you do, don’t double space after periods.” It took me an entire week to break that habit.

Following high school graduation, my original plans were to attend Ohio University for photo-journalism, but after I was admitted to attend Arizona State University for graphic communications, the warm weather and living in the West persuaded me to attend there instead. I have no regrets about that early-life, fork-in-the-road decision, but I often wonder what would have resulted if I had headed for Athens instead.

As the graphic design world started to claim some of the traditional production areas, I too started my claim on graphic design as an educator. If graphic designers can learn prepress, than certainly prepress folk can learn graphic design. —mdt1960