Skip to content
  • Home
  • Geezers Roll Call
  • Not Forgotten
  • Gatherings
  • Contact

Geezers’ Gallery

San Francisco's Golden Age of Advertising and the people who created it.

  • Home
    • Privacy Policy
  • Pages
    • Geezers Roll Call
    • Not Forgotten
  • Who was Where
    • Agencies
    • Copywriters
    • Photographic
    • Reps
    • Staff Creatives
    • Studios & Freelancers
    • Publications
  • Gatherings
    • Gathering 2024
    • Gathering 2022
    • Gathering 2021
    • Gathering 2020
    • Gathering 2019
    • Gathering 2018
    • Gathering 2017
    • Gathering 2016
    • Gathering 2015
    • Gathering 2014
    • Gathering 2013
    • Gathering 2012
    • Gathering 2011
    • Gathering 2010
    • Gathering 2009
    • Gathering 2008
    • Gathering 2007
    • Gathering 2006
    • Gathering 2005
    • Gathering 2004
    • Gathering 2003
    • Gathering 2002
    • Gathering 2001
    • Gathering 2000
    • Gathering 1999
    • Gathering 1993
  • Contact Us

Free-lancers Introduce New Products

Posted on August 17, 2024August 17, 2024 By Hey You

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:

Labels-for-self-promo
1-4 Century
1 – 4 Century 

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.

PSA
PSA 
Lincoln Mercury
Lincoln Mercury 
ANNABELLE 1966
ANNABELLE 1966 
Temescal Pages
Temescal Pages 
Holiday Magic Poster
Holiday Magic Poster 
Brother Buzz
Brother Buzz 
Century Ranch
Century Ranch 
H Salt
H Salt 
Activa Celluclay
Activa Celluclay 
Levi's folder
Levi’s folder 

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.

Norinyl
Norinyl 
Mighty Mealys folder
Mighty Mealys folder 
Live Bait
Live Bait 
Brevicon Packages
Brevicon Packages 

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.

US Leasing
US Leasing 
Redwood Bank pin
Redwood Bank pin 
IT Newspaper
IT Newspaper 
Pong 1973
Pong 1973 

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.

Ocusert
Ocusert 
Ocusert
Ocusert 
Ocusert
Ocusert 
Donner Designs all items
Donner Designs all items 
Diatek
Diatek 

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.

Puff
Puff 
Cutter Resiflex Ad two folders
Cutter Resi­flex Ad two folders 
Cutter Motivation
Cutter Motivation 
1979
1979 
Apple Iios owners Guide
Apple Iios owners Guide 
Apple IIGS Art Spots
Apple IIGS Art Spots 

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.

MRI
MRI 
Skate America 1991
Skate America 1991 
Skate America folder
Skate America folder 
Aleve launch
Aleve launch 
Aleve
Aleve 
Aleve
Aleve 

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.

RasterOps Painter
RasterOps Painter 
Painter Software
Painter Software 

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


Recollections

Post navigation

Previous Post: From Layouts to Completion — Part 2
Next Post: The learning the curve of drawing on the new tool, the computer!

Artist's Sites

  • Bill and Nina Stewart
  • Bill Cone
  • Bill Schwob art
  • Bob Bausch
  • Bruce Lauritzen
  • Bruce Wolfe
  • Bryn Craig
  • Caleb Whitbeck
  • Charles Pyle
  • Chris Blum
  • Chuck Eckart
  • Darren Hanshaw
  • Dave Broad
  • Fred Lyon
  • Gale McKee
  • Hans Halberstadt
  • Jack Allen
  • James Propp
  • Janet Jones
  • Jeff Leedy
  • Jerry Huff
  • Jim Stitt
  • John Mattos
  • Kirk Henderson
  • Larry Keenan
  • Lowell Herrero
  • Marc Ericksen
  • Mark Keller
  • Mark Schroeder
  • Mik Kitagawa
  • Robert Arnold
  • Robert Evans
  • Robert Gantt Steele
  • Roger Shelly
  • Stan Dann
  • Stephen Rutherford
  • Tom Whitworth
  • Ward Schumaker

Artist Galleries

  • Tom Watson
  • Keehn Gray
  • John Pratt
  • Chuck Eckart
  • Jerry Huff
  • Al Davidson
  • Bill Nellor
  • Jim Stitt Designs

Copy Writers

  • Joel Fugazzotto
  • Samm Coombs
  • Todd Miller

Still In The Game

  • Bill and Nina Stewart
  • Bill Schwob work
  • Chris Blum
  • Darren Hanshaw
  • David Johnson
  • Fred Lyon
  • Hans Halberstadt
  • Jack Tom
  • James Propp
  • Jeff Leedy
  • Jim Stitt
  • John Mattos
  • Kirk Henderson
  • Lars Melander
  • Marc Ericksen
  • Mark Keller
  • Mark Schroeder
  • Peter Thompson
  • Robert Arnold
  • Robert Holmes
  • Rory Phoenix
  • Scott Simpkin
  • Stephen Rutherford
  • Steve Rustad
  • Tom Whitworth
  • Ward Schumaker

Places We Like

  • Patterson Hall Early History
  • Piet Halberstadt
  • Printing Films
  • The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies

Copyright © 2025 Geezers’ Gallery.

Powered by PressBook Premium theme