Technologist and designer, that's me!
A Typical Start...
I had learned keyboarding in high school. Actually, I nearly failed keyboarding in high school, to the extent that the instructor had to tape a piece of cardboard over my fingers so I wouldn't peek.
But I stuck with it, because keyboarding was a required class for BASIC programming, in which I was really interested. I was very curious about telling the computer what to do, rather than just typing letters and drawing pictures.
So, I learned BASIC, and discovered that you could tell the computer how to draw a thing, rather than actually having to draw it yourself. That was the extent of high school computer programming, in 1986.
Growing Up Geeky
I went on to college for computer programming, at New England Institute of Technology in Warwick, RI. The first day of class, there're twenty students sitting in a computer lab. Some are straight out of high school, some are twenty-somethings picking up an education, some at a mid-life crisis, and at least one just in the wrong room.
The room quickly grew segregated, those who had at least some knowledge of computers and those who didn't know how to turn them on. And there was one little lady who sat right in the middle, migrating her way towards the computer-literate crowd. She said (in a cute Southern accent), "I'm gonna sit with y'all, hope some of it rubs off." She graduated the head of the class...
The thing was, the coursework consisted of learning three computer languages - BASIC, RPG-II and COBOL. It was a business programming course, with report generation being the primary focus. That was all well and good, but the group of five or six of us who knew a bit, knew that there was more to computing than simply finding the same ways of regurgitating the same information.
So we explored. We completed the coursework (six to eight weeks' worth) within the first week and a half, kept up with the classes themselves, and had time to spend learning other languages on our own. We explored graphics and fractals programming with BASIC, learned LISP and created turtles, explored primitive AI gadgets written in ADA. Over the year and a half Associates program, there were three or four of us who kept at it, and poked around at five or six other languages. Mostly scripted, some compiled. I always preferred the scripted languages, because changes were immediately reflected in the end result.
Scripted languages (of which BASIC and LISP were prevalent) are still around, in languages like PHP and Perl, as well as HTML, XML, Javascript... and I've got a hand in all of these, because of the disciplines I picked up in college.
How much is a picture worth again?
While still in college, I'd come home on weekends and vacations. I spent a great deal of time learning design on Illustrator 88(and THAT should give a clue how long it's been!), I've been working in graphic design for a pretty long time. Working, because it became a part-time food money thing.
Actually, it sort of runs in the blood - my father was a printer for thirty-five years in Southbridge, Mass. He began at Paquette Printers on Elm St., gradually worked at it, learning all the various presses and other equipment, and I remember as a child visiting dad at the shop. I would learn a little about how it all worked, about separations and ruby liths and the like, keep dad company after hours.
Eventually, dad had his own print shop, with a CompuGraphic and a Mac Classic, side by side. I still visited the presses, but was far more comfortable around the computer equipment and design table. This was where I began learning design. Dad's Mac had some design software on it, notably Illustrator 88. He had an in-house graphic designer, responsible for logo designs, business cards, quick forms and that sort of thing. It was, however, a small shop. She was part-time, and would often bounce between designing and packing/shipping. Which left the computer unoccupied for a good part of the day.
Eventually, when my dad needed designs done, I would pitch in. "Sure, dad - I'll scan that and replicate the fonts. Get it to you in two hours." Mom would keep an eye on me, ostensibly running the Compugraphic, but also trying to learn a bit of what I was doing. I would take the time to show her, or dad, or whoever was willing to listen exactly what I did. It may have been teenage showing off, but it was also a beginning on learning to teach computer usage to people who didn't understand the ins and outs.
A picure's worth... $6 per hour.
On graduation from college, I found that there were many people who had the same skillset in terms of programming, and I also discovered that business report programming bored the bejeebers out of me. So, I looked for work in the graphic design side. And wound up at the Shopper-Turnpike Corp, in Putnam, CT.
The firm was responsible for the production of the Shopper's Guide and the Turnpike Buyer, two popular 'ad rags' in the northeast corner of Connecticut. I was part of a team of twelve designers, who would build two separate ad papers, 130 - 160 pages each. Every week. The ads were set on Macs running Multi-Ad Creator, printed and pasted on giant spreads that would be shot and reduced for the paper.
I learned to use a stat camera, taught myself Multi-Ad Creator and helped devise a filing system to allow quick organization and retrieval of past ads on file. This was the only way to produce that kind of volume in a shop that small - compartmentalization and reuse of everything we could. By the time I moved on, I had helped revamp the filing structure, introduced the use of the scanner rather than the stat camera for real estate ads, and learned a great deal. I left there, earning $6.00 per hour.
Moving on up...
And why, you may ask, would you ever want to leave such a rewarding, lucrative career? Well you may ask - the answer was $10 per hour. Yep, I applied and was accepted for a graphic design job at DeForest Associates in Wilbraham, Mass.
Having already been hired, worked there and moved on, I can now admit that I walked in the door and faked completely my trial. No, I never admitted to skills I didn't have, I simply didn't tell them what skills I had. Yes, I had some graphic design skills. Yes, I'd used a Mac; in fact, I helped design a file storage system for them. Sure, I had production experience. All true, in its way. But the fact was, I had no idea what Quark was. To the best of my understanding, it was a Zen thing. I sat down, they placed a produced ad on the page holder and said, "Reproduce that." In QuarkXPress 3.31. Never having seen it before. Heh.
Well, it took a while, and the sizes were ballpark (I had no idea what a Z-Scale was, and to this day, I'm shaky on using one). The fonts were right, I've got that kind of an eye. I drive down the highway, calling of the fonts used on billboards I pass. The ad was two-color, so I just had to worry about grays, which I guesstimated. But I got the job.
I had thought producing two 100+ page ad rags each week was tricky - now I was part of a team of nine, responsible for the production of about forty 4-, 6- and 8-page full-color grocery mailers each week. Technology helped, though - there wasn't a single stat camera in the place, and the design desks were primarily for the proofers.
I learned the job, learned the software, explored what was possible, and made suggestions for improvements. Eventually, the office was expanded, the network was upgraded and the system needed more IT work than was currently on staff. So I started taking an interest in that. The owner noticed, and asked if I'd take on the responsibility of upgrades and maintenance, for a 50% increase in pay. I took it and started learning NT Server and Mac maintenance procedures.
I was primarily day-to-day backup for the IT consultants that were brought in on a monthly basis to do the major system and server upgrades. I had little knowledge of Windows at that point, but I was learning, both from books and magazines, and from asking the consulting company advice and questions along the way.
Eventually, the consultant asked if I were interested in a job with him. And that's how I went into the tech support field, working for Chan SmartWare, Inc. of Worcester, Mass.
Those that can, do...
Of course, I took the job. I mean, it was perfect - I could work with the design software, I could learn more programming, I could help people who were having problems - I loved it!
I still went to DeForest Associates when they needed support - they were a client. We had a number of clients for whom we would make regular visits, to do upgrades and maintenance work. On the pre-OSX Mac, that meant software upgrades, defragmentation, running Norton Utilities and TechTool Pro, zapping PRAM, rebuilding various desktops, and all that Mac voodoo we had to go through back then (they were the good old days!).
That was a part of my week - there was also phone support, emergency calls and in-house development going on. With Jerry Chan, we designed a software package made to run cross-platform that would be a data warehouse to facilitate the development of those same grocery flyers I'd been building at DeForest Associates. The package stored copy and images for any given product ID, which could then be retrieved and dropped directly into Quark documents, into any preformatted template. Basically, the same data could be flowed into a quarter-page feature item, or a two-line filler, and any relevant logos or images would be tacked on the side for ease of use.
I was responsible for the back-end stuff, written primarily in Perl and SQL. Jerry built the client-side applets, largely AppleScripts that would plug the data from the server directly into Quark. Then it was decided to make a slight... change. The application would be written to allow for multiple locations, with data replication and integration between multiple databases. For a guy who detested business report programming, I found myself enjoying the challenges!
Even this, though, wasn't the totality of my week - I would also help with training and go out for trainings of my own. I learned color management, PDF workflow management, font management and other skills. I would synthesize the data, and then go out and help our clients understand how it would apply to their specific situation. I loved the job, but I wanted something more.
Who could ask for anything more?
What more? By this point, I had a family. A wonderful wife and three great sons. I wanted the freedom to be with my family more. I felt it was important to me to be there. I remember a call from my wife late one night that my youngest son had gotten hurt, and I wasn't able to get home in time to do anything to help. So I decided it was time to pursue self-employment.
I had a non-compete agreement, which I held to, for a period of three years. I did no consulting work, no graphic design work, and had nothing to do with Chan SmartWare's field or clients. I did maintain my skills, simply for my own use. I did some web design, toyed with flash, and began to consult on website design and programming.
And now?
And that brings things up to date. I currently have skills with Adobe software, stretching back to 1991. I have typing skills, learned by need rather than a piece of cardboard over they keys. I have a handle on web design and programming, including XML, XHTML, CSS, and Javascript. I've maintained a solid knowledge of OSX, as well as Windows from 3.1 right up to XP.
My long-term goal is to continue in the web programming and graphic design field, with an eye towards keeping my skills as far as system maintenance and upgrade. I've enjoyed the journey so far, who knows where it'll bring me?