Free-lancers Introduce New Products, Services and Announcements.
Free-lancers: the artists, the photographers, the copywriters and others that worked as independent contractors, were able to touch on a wide variety of NEW products and services.
Those employed in advertising agencies often did introduce new products but they were limited only to the clients that each agency represented.
I started free-lancing on May 17, 1965, at age 23. My first job sheet was just a yellow legal pad starting with: Job: #001 Client: Butte, Herrero and Hyde — Billed: May 18, 1965, Amount: $5.00. In the last column I entered: “Paid”.
I had previously worked a year for BH&H, learning presentations, finished art methods,“paste-up” for the printers and all that was needed for a successful art service. But then those employers dissolved their partnership. What was I to do? Each said that, as they started their individual studios, they would need my assistance. The hourly rate was small but their requests, (my jobs: #001 to Job: #025) kept me busy, and I was still learning a lot. Shell Chemical then gave me small jobs that B,H or H wouldn’t do.
I show the three labels that I made, later, to attach to mail. packages and even “floppy disks”!
In 1990, when I had free-lanced for a quarter of a century, this was my ”promo” card:
These are some of the NEW products or services announced from my studio from:
April, 1965 — 1969 My location: 728 Montgomery Street:
#041: PSA, a new coloring book for children flying on Pacific Southwest Airlines’ 727 Fan Jet or the Super Electra Jet. The flights were to San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Hollywood /Burbank and San Diego.
These three assignments that I list here were from Richard L. Burns (Advertising and PR) who put the ‘Smile” on the nose of the PSA aircraft.
#049: Redwood Lincoln / Mercury, announcing their newest models on Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco.
#138: Annabelle’s Rocky Road. A new announcement listings on our local TV, Channel 2. (Annabelle’s Candy Company, launched in 1950 by Sam Altshuler, recently announced closing their main Hayward CA facility, on September 27, 2024, after 74 years of candy making: ”Rocky Road, Big Hunk, Abba-Zaba and U‑No, The candy bars will still be made at their other facilities.)
#203: Temescal. “The Electron Beam” “A New Super Heat Source”. I was given only the sheets of copy. I had to understand the processes and present images to explain each. For the printer, I trimmed and pasted the copy (from a typography shop) in position in board and then accurately anchored three acetate overlays for each: magenta, blue, and black so that I could trim the shapes from red rubylith. I was told that this brochure with this new metallurgical method was, for many years, used as a teaching tool.
#231: Holiday Magic. There were several agencies competing to represent this new cosmetic start-up.
#317: Brother Buzz, a direct mail promo for the new local TV show for children.
#338: Century Ranch, a new housing development.
#365: H. Salt, Esq. This ad announced the full list of locations for the new “Fish and Chips” fast food locations.
#390: Activa, new craft kits, offering various molds for clay.
#466: Levi’s, a folder for Levi’s new “Spring ’70” line.
1969- My Location: 680 Beach Street
By this time in early 1970 I was working with a studio next to the medical advertising agency, Klemptner Casey, where there were very many products that were new:
#484: “LightCast” which replaced the ‘plaster cast’ as a new protection stabilizing a broken bone and able to be wet.
There were new diet formulas for babies to adults.
#516 Syntex’s Norinyl detail aid. In the early 1970s, the new Syntex birth control pill was being introduced.
I had many strange assignments that came from other sources, such as:
#815 In 1972, there was (for fishing) the newly availability of packaged Mealworms!
#829 Syntex, a booklet,“About Oral Contraceptive” and the Brevicon package.
June 1974 — April 1976 My Location: 300 Broadway
#1221, In June,1974, US Leasing offered the newest NCR’s (National Cash Register’s) office equipment as rentals.
#1360: In 1975, I was able to work for Redwood Bank in San Rafael, CA, which was about to present a new way of offering 24 hour service with their “Instant Teller!
#1474: ATARI. This was a new plan for an exhibition booth where visitors could play the new ATARI “Pong” computer game.
April, 1976 —- April 1977 My Location: 560 Pacific Ave,
#1510 ALZA ’s Ocusert, a drug delivery device (an implant that delivered pilocarpineto in the eye for seven day periods to treat glaucoma).
I searched CRST GLOBAL to find that Ocucert was unsuccessful because of patient discomfort, but it was the first to develop a long-lasting drug delivery product. It wasn’t until 20 years later, in 1995, that Chiron Vision launched Vitrasert, the world’s first intraocular drug delivery implant.
#1613 Donner Designs. New sewing pattens for ski wear.
# 1773 New DIATEK, a new thermometer.
April,1977 — November 1987 My Location: 901 Battery Street
#1968 Cutter Resiflex, a new Motivational Program. This layout for an ad and these printed folders (front and back) shows the new Cutter product that improved the performance of the lungs.Each “puff” or “leap” motivates the patient to complete the six breathing exercise levels.
#2172 Ayer/ Pritikin & Gibbons, a folder for their new location. My art was also enlarged for their wall in their reception area (which I wasn’t aware of until I personally delivered my invoice for the folder).
#3033 Apple Manual. With the first Apple computers, a manual was provided for reference (a “How-To”) for offices and homes.
November 1987 – 1997 My Location: One Lombard Street
This art (below) for an MRI is a mystery, I find no job write-up, but there must have been a color version of this Xerox copy. Magnetic Resonance Imaging was so very new and amazing!
Most of my medical art, in those years was for VICOM/FCB.
#3282 Skate America 1991 Competition, the new Ice-skating competitors for 1991.
#3313 Aleve, the new nonprescription analgesic (pain reliever) launch: a joint venture of the Syntex Corporation and the Procter & Gamble Co.
Working from Home 1997 —2005:
From 1997 and on, I had many new contacts that also introduced me to very new concepts.
A new monitor and a new soft-ware in one assignment:
Reid Creative introduced me to RasterOPs, a manufacturer of monitors for early Macintosh systems from Apple Computer. I also was able to experience Fractal Design”s new “Painter” which offered “Sessions” which was the new step in animation.
The program would record each stroke from my hand as I created the these “fashion figures through the centuries”. One could watch each stroke, as the figures developed.
On another assignment, I helped to design new images for Microsoft Network, which, in very little time, became: MSNBC ! (This report, later.)
Through the years, with these assignments above, and so many more — -I was introduced to new products, services and events that I would never otherwise have known.
The last job that I listed on 4-13-2003 was Job: #3,447.
Ann Thompson