Steve Rustad 

6−8−23 12:12 PM
Hey there -
Attached is a photo circa late 60’s. After I grad­u­ated Cal in 1970, my first job was doing paste-up at Capwell’s ad depart­ment (in Oakland) assem­bling news­paper ads from type galleys, and FPO prints with wax.

6−18−23 2:33 PM
My next job after Capwell’s was as a Federal Sky Marshal. I flew on PanAm — mostly from SFO to points west for a year and a half.. As a cover iden­tity I carried a sketch­book. It was a good excuse for looking around. Fortu­nately, I drew well enough that most of the other passen­gers assumed I was a profes­sional artist. The Sky Marshal gig lasted until 1972 when they phased out the program. I wasn’t really cut out for law enforce­ment, so I got a job as a writer for Hall­mark Cards and moved to Kansas City for a couple of years. After that I went to work as an art director for an educa­tional film company, Centron Educa­tional Films, in Lawrence, KS.

In 1975, I moved back to SF to marry my first wife. I had a couple of jobs (art director for Amer­ican Analysis, a company in Oakland that made training films for the Army and art director at the Slide Factory) before I was hired by Ketchum, in 1978, as a story­board artist reporting to Bruce Campbell.

Steve Rustad

Editor’s Note. See: https://​geezers​gallery​.com/​s​t​e​v​e​-​r​u​s​t​a​d​-​h​a​s​-​t​a​l​e​s​-​t​o​-​t​e​ll/ for his full story.
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Todd Miller 

6−8−23 1:29 PM
Photos 1 — This is me (Todd Miller) as ​“Uncle Sam” helping Joel Siegal (later a news­paper movie reviewer) cut a cake at a going-away party at Carson Roberts Advertising.
Joel was going into the army…sent to Vietnam. I was the copy­writer replacing Joel.
I was making $450. a month.
Within 6 months, I moved to B.B.D.O. in San Fran­cisco where I worked for Hal Riney for $500. a month.
Photo‑2 This is a picture of Joel Siegal pushing a piece of cake into the face of art director Mikio Osaki. Art Director Terry Gilliam (later Director of the movie Brazil and animator of Monty Python,etc.) was dressed as a wounded soldier standing beside Joel.
Writer Jill Murray also worked at Carson Roberts when I was there. I don’t know their salaries but I think they were miles above my $450.

Todd Miller

6−9−23 8:38 AM
Oh yeah.….this was in 1964.

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Dick 

6−8−23 2:12 PM:
​“My first self-appointed task, at the age of 16, was to copy a single panel of Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant” Sunday comic strip (for a year) from the Chicago Tribune. That was my first intro to graphic arts. I was very happy to find that Frank Frazzetta also copied ​“Prince Valiant”, to learn how to use the brush and pen.

My photo at age 17 and my copies.”

My ​“entry level” into a graphic loca­tion was on the USS Pocono, the Flag Ship for
Vice Admiral F. G. Fahrion, USN ( Commander Amphibious Force U.S. Atlantic Fleet.)
There was a full art and photo depart­ment where I was able to create charts and cartoons as shown on this menu for the 1952 Thanks­giving Day dinner.
Dick Moore

Editors note: The collec­tion of Prince Valiant draw­ings (saved by Dick’s mother) shows no correc­tions. There are 53 in all.
Editor’s second note: See Dick’s previous story:
https://​geezers​gallery​.com/​f​r​e​e​-​l​a​n​c​i​n​g​-​m​a​n​y​-​l​o​c​a​t​i​o​ns/
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Lester Barnett 

6−8−23 7:17 PM
Hi, Ann.
My entry was in the Art Depart­ment of Singer Sewing Machine. The company could not create repair manuals in hundreds of languages, so we did ​“word­less books.” Using only draw­ings and symbols, we provided complex main­te­nance and repair instruc­tions. I can’t imagine a better visual commu­ni­ca­tion training ground.

6−11−23 4:03 PM
The word­less books were smaller as they only dealt with everyday main­te­nance and repair.
BTW, the machine that the book was written about was not a house­hold machine. It was an indus­trial one primarily used for making shoes. The most heavy duty one I know of made fire hoses.

6/14/23, 1:33 PM
Great research. I don’t believe these two exam­ples would have been part of the word­less series, but it’s a great example of giving a ton of infor­ma­tion on a single sheet…with no need for trans­la­tion as it was just numbers and letters.
I don’t remember if I had done the 221K machine (which is a small work­horse) word­less book, but I did work on its instruc­tion booklet and I still own the machine.
In the art depart­ment was a guy named Arpad Stanuk who was a virtuoso with the airbrush. He did ​“X‑ray views” of the machines. Every part of the machine was photographed at a 45-degree angle and he would overlay translu­cent images of every single part. Every rod, every gear. Every plate. Spec­tac­ular work. I could find none of them on the internet, I’m afraid.
I’ll send a photo of me at that time for a giggle.

Lester Barnett

Editor’s note: Boot-or-shoe making Singer machines can still be bought on-line — -“ship­ping” is the issue!
On-line there is a showing of the very many versions of the Singer logo in foreign languages, 
The machines reached many parts of the world.

Editor’s second note: See Lester’s part in Medical Advertising:
https://​www​.mahf​.com/​i​n​d​u​c​t​e​e​/​l​e​s​t​e​r​-​b​a​r​n​e​tt/
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Marc Erickson 

6−8−23 8:50 PM
Hi Ann
I was 25, coming off of 6 years of active duty in the Army, waiting to transfer out of my second year-long tour in Viet Nam. All I knew was weapons, and tactics, and had grown up as a service kid. Drew a great deal as a kid, which I had not drawn anything at all for the past 6 years. I was a veteran, married and a father.
I was able to scrounge some pencils, markers, and white card­board from the head­quar­ters and I created 12 illus­tra­tions while I waited the last 2 weeks to rotate back to the states. I can’t remember what they were.
What ever they were, I sent them to my Dad in Cali­fornia. After a little research I came up with three options: Art Center, Pratt, and Univer­sity of Cali­fornia, asking him to mail a copy set to each school. U.C. was my only rejec­tion (Thank you Lord…) and I took my family to LA.

I was halfway through Art Center when I ran out of my GI bill money, so I worked at Universal Studios art depart­ment for the summer, picking up a job creating art for educa­tional film strips for 1^st graders. I loved it! I was able to return to Art Center. They offered me a half schol­ar­ship by ACC and I grad­u­ated B.A.A. with honors.
Here’s my very first printed job.. It was 1974 for Zee toys and I was paid $75. I rendered the heli­copter for the art director for whom I had earlier done some story­board work.

I loved LA but got an offer to join a well estab­lished studio in Chicago,
So away we went, but a Chicago guy, I am not. Shortly after only a year, Dianne and I landed in San Fran­cisco, where I worked at Art Works Studio for three great years. I’ve been now, for nearly 40 years, almost all of that at 1045 Sansome Street (the top of the hill). Ive been retired for a few years. (I got here, right at the begin­ning of Tech and Gaming, and I’ve retired at the begin­ning of the advent of Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence. Perfect timing all around.)

Ann, I’m pretty sure that this (illus­tra­tion above) was done in Chicago for their beloved railroads.

It’s been a wild ride with a ton of all-nighters, but, it was an adven­ture and a lot of fun working with really special folks all across the adver­tising spectrum.

Here is my retrogameart​.com of my favorite work, and the art I most enjoyed.

Cheers to you all,
Marc Erickson

Editor’s note: For Marc Ericksen’s previous story and artwork, see:
https://geezersgallery.com/a‑day-at-the-races/

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Lars Melander 

6−11−23 6:03 AM
Hi Ann!
Here is where it all started for me after art school.
Hall­mark Cards was in Europe looking for young talents working at them for a year as a exper­i­mental designer.
In Sweden they found Sven Lindman and I, so we went there and stayed for a year.

I am sending you a picture of me in my little space at Hall­mark in 1962 that was published in our Swedish morning news­paper. (It also was added in a book about me). Here I am standing in the huge archive in Hallmark.
Lars Melander

Editor’s note: The earlier report about Lars was posted at:
https://​geezers​gallery​.com/​l​a​r​s​-​m​e​l​a​n​d​er/
Lars, for many years, has been a successful Fine Artist in Sweden.
See his current website of paint­ings and prints at the list at the right: Still in the Game or:
https://​lasseme​lander​.wixsite​.com/​l​a​s​s​e​m​e​l​a​n​d​e​r​/​p​a​i​n​t​i​ngs
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George Hampton 

6−12−23 2:54 PM
Here’s my tale:
After grad­u­ating from Art Center College of Design in L.A. against Tink Adams’ (then pres­i­dent of Art Center) recom­men­da­tion I went to Australia where I found a job with J. Walter Thompson in Sydney. At that time (1960) it was a great advan­tage being from America. With no actual/real life adver­tising work expe­ri­ence I was given a job as a Senior Art Director which included accounts that allowed me to visit all of Australia’s major cities! I am still amazed at my lucky expe­ri­ences as a novice.

6−13−23 10:11am
This is me in 1963 having just finished working in Australia for 2 years and then hitching hiking from Singa­pore to London. That’s another story!

7/1/23 12:30 PM
My office was just to the left of the Opera House which was just starting to be constructed when I was there. Our building was torn down several years after I left. The tea ladies who came by in the morning and after­noon asked us to join the Opera House Lottery ticket pool that the creative depart­ment had going.

My port­folio from that time and every­thing in San Fran­cisco has appar­ently been lost in our move to Texas!
Dang it!

George Hampton

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Susan Atch­eson Larson 

VP Creative Director, Dennis Foley was respon­sible for hiring me as the first female art director at Ogilvy Mather, San Fran­cisco in 1982. It was a miracle I was ever hired. David Ogilvy anointed Ogilvy & Mather San Fran­cisco as the ​“crown jewel” of O&M World­wide, and regarded Hal Riney as his #1 Chief Creative Officer. Since 1976, when Hal Riney first opened the San Fran­cisco O&M office, the policy was to only hire creative heavy­weights with a proven track record.

Dennis Foley, Hal’s Creative right-hand man, believed O&M was to ​“top heavy.” Foley predicted when top creatives left for better oppor­tu­ni­ties, the agency would suffer huge talent deficits shat­tering its creative foun­da­tion. Foley advised Hal to hire a group of talented young creatives for grooming as O&M’s next creative gener­a­tion. VP Creative Director Tom Tieche coined Foley’s approach as ​“The Infi­nite Monkey Theorem.” I was the first of many ​“monkeys” hired at O&M during this creative exper­i­mental window.

I was intro­duced to Dennis Foley cour­tesy of The Creative Black Book. After finding Foley’s name listed, I called for an inter­view and met with him during his port­folio review hours. Dennis impressed me with his intel­li­gence, humanity and razor-sharp Irish wit. He was one of the best story tellers I’ve ever met, we became instant friends. At the end of our inter­view Dennis gave me the ulti­mate compli­ment by asking permis­sion to keep my student port­folio in his office so he could pitch it to Hal at ​“the right time.” As a master strate­gist plan­ning his attack Dennis elab­o­rated, “‘The right time’ could be tomorrow, next week or next month. It’s really impor­tant to wait for Hal to be relaxed and in a good mood, this usually happens after a successful creative day and a few bour­bons.” Dennis’s strategy hit the mark, six-weeks later he called to offer me my art director job at Ogilvy & Mather.

As I prepared myself to enter O&M’s hallowed halls for my first day of work, mentor and dear friend Herb Briggs wisely coun­seled: ​“Keep your eyes open, and your mouth shut!” Price­less advice that has served me well.
The Larson Bride Came C.O.D.
My life began when I met Hal Larson. We first met at a party cele­brating the birth­days of our mutual friends’— writers John van der Zee and Joanna Thompson Zane. I was intro­duced to Hal by Creative Director Herb Briggs who dead­panned, ​“Hal Larson, I’d like you to meet Sue Atch­eson, she’s a real ball breaker!” Caught off guard by Herb’s remarks, I blushed and was speech­less. Hal gazed at me with twin­kling eyes that soon melted into a wickedly endearing smile. As Hal reached into his pocket to give me his busi­ness card along with an invi­ta­tion to ​“do lunch,” my heart became his.

On the face of it we appeared to be an improb­able match. I was a divorcee who had bless­edly emerged whole after surviving a trau­matic marriage. Hal was a widower who had been happily married for 33 years before losing his wife to compli­ca­tions from juve­nile diabetes. Hal recalled:
​“After Vonnie’s death, I was emotion­ally exhausted. I contem­plated a peaceful old age, trav­eling, reading and writing. I would never marry again. Or so I thought. Four years after my wife’s death, on the eve of my sixty-second birthday, I cancelled a red-eye flight to Chicago and went to the birthday party of an old friend. And there my life took an abrupt turn. Completely forget­ting my plans, I fell higgledy-piggledy hope­lessly in love with a blithe and radiant woman 28 years younger than me. Five months later, on a sun-drenched patio under a bower of balloons and fresh country flowers, we married.”

To commem­o­rate our nuptials, Joanna adroitly wrote a Hal Riney & Part­ners, Inc. purchase order for my new husband. This gift came with C.O.D. instruc­tions ​“For a life­time of love, tender­ness, caring and fun with Susan Atch­eson, A.D.” Hal Riney added his endorse­ment by signing it.
For the next 31 years (until his passing at age 93 in 2017) Hal Larson faith­fully embodied the spirit of that purchase order; he was my soul­mate, best friend, lover, mentor, and partner in work and play. I will forever cherish the love we shared and our time together.

At age 66 Hal became a first-time dad. Then again at age 69 Hal welcomed the birth of our second little girl. Hal reflected his second marriage gave him:
​“a renewed appre­ci­a­tion of the thou­sands of little things that make life such a joy. Good friends. Family. Love. Funny stories. Books, Long walks. Useful work. Beau­tiful views. Ice cream. Sunsets. Music. Commu­nity. And always and forever, my wife and daugh­ters. How very, very lucky I am.”

Masters Mailer 

Masters Mailer with names 

Learning From The Masters
​“Learning the Art of Adver­tising From The Masters,” was the most grat­i­fying entry level project I created while working at Ogilvy & Mather. The project was a series of SF Ad Club 2 work­shops taught by adver­tising masters including creatives: Herb Briggs, Kit Hinrichs, Stan Fleming and Al Hayes.

As the educa­tion program director for SF Ad Club 2, it was my job to find ways to link entry level profes­sionals to senior adver­tising experts who could provide guid­ance in the funda­men­tals of art direc­tion, copy­writing, port­folio design, selling your­self & ideas, marketing and learning what to say (and not say) to a client.

My inspi­ra­tion came from Rembrandt’s Dutch Masters painting. During my free­lancing years, before I was hired at O&M, I had the priv­i­lege of working for some incred­ible adver­tising masters in art direc­tion, graphic design, copy­writing, media and accounts. I wanted to share with others what I had learned, thus ​“the Masters series” was born.

There was no budget for the Masters project. This project took wings through the generosity of San Francisco’s adver­tising commu­nity. The Master teachers and fine artist waived their stipends. Print dona­tions were provided by Walker Engraving, Aspen Graphics, Omni­comp Typog­raphy, Seaboard Paper, Cali­fornia Printing and Ed Zak, photog­ra­pher. Greg Keeling, a gifted oil painter, rendered the Adver­tising Masters artwork on canvas emulating the style of Rembrandt. My super­vi­sors at Ogilvy and Mather graciously gave me the needed time to design the poster and mailer during office hours. Rich Silver­stein and Jeff Goodby lent their Master’s hand by editing my copy and fine tuning the design.

Oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn the ​“Art of Adver­tising From The Masters” continued for the rest of my years at Ogilvy & Mather and Hal Riney & Part­ners, Inc. How blessed I was to work and learn from the best! I witnessed the creation of legendary adver­tising campaigns created by Goodby & Silver­stein, Hal’s Pres­i­den­tial Tuesday Team, Jerry Andelin, John van der Zee, Boyd Jacobson, Dennis Foley, Brian Barnes, and the list goes on and on and on…

Susan Atch­eson Larson