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Getting into the Head of Ed
Last week I had the pleasure of having lunch at Isabella's with Ed Clark, of The Clark Company. Many of you already know Ed. He has been a Spokane advertising icon for decades, and now publishes the "How's Business?" eNewsletter, and hosts a business radio program on KXLY 920 AM.
Ed and I had a great time reminiscing over 25 years of Spokane advertising and design. Ed has an entertaining wealth of information on the evolution of the advertising industry in the region, from the days of Coons Corker Shotwell, Adams Ham Mulcahy, and Clark White & Associates, to 1980s graphic design start-ups Whynotgraphics, Spilker & Associates and Wild Bill Graphics, and on to the present time.
Much has changed in Spokane advertising and design over the years. When Klündt | Hosmer opened its doors in 1987, typesetting was still handled by Tradegraphics and Typesetting Unlimited (all gone the way of the dinosaur). Graphic designers had about 60 font families to choose from (not counting rubdown type sheets from Letraset) and most of our graphic design supplies were sold by Ratels (an art supply store) on Garland Avenue. Today's young designers would have no clue about waxers, #11 Exacto blades, parallel rules, Letraset markers, amberlith and burnishing tools... things we used every day.
I remember the first page layout program I ever purchased (in 1986), Ready Set Go! that ran on my Macintosh Plus computer. With 1 MB RAM and an external 20 MB hard drive that cost over $1,200, I was pushing the design techology envelope! Then came the Macintosh SE and PageMaker 1.2, galley output at TypePlus and a scanner that swapped out with the ribbon cartridge of my Apple Imagewriter II printer. Can you believe we designed 11" x 17" spreads on the Mac's original 8" black and white monitor?
Lunch with Ed was a nice trip down memory lane. It was great taking a look at where we've all come from and where we're going.
To subscribe to Ed Clark's "How's Business?" eNewsletter, sign-up at his website.
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