Starting Out? You Have to Start Somewhere, Somehow.

Recently, when visiting our friendly tonso­rial artist, we asked about his daughter who, at age 20, has an interest in graphic design. (He mentioned that he had visited this site) then said: ​“She is on a soccer team now, and they wanted her to design the t‑shirts for their team.
I hope her career begins as easily as that!”
I think today, it could.

When I was 20, I was working at PT&T (Pacific Tele­phone and Tele­graph) typing up list­ings for the tele­phone book. My pay for 2 weeks: $124 and then moving up to 2 weeks: $133. (Wow !)
(From 1961 to 1963 I was at City College of San Fran­cisco taking adver­tising art classes.) I worked a few weeks at Imag­i­na­tion. Inc. painting anima­tion cells for a Stan­dard Oil commer­cial (no records of pay). Then, Sept.’63 to Feb.’64, a clerking job at Wells Fargo Bank, making only $116 per two weeks at their Stop Payment desk. (Boo.)

In March of 1964, an illus­trator and a lettering artist (Mike Bull and Chuck Wertman) had decided leave a top art studio to free-lance. I had the good luck of being hired into their space. i was set up with a drawing board and I was in care of the art room and the recep­tion area. For one year i worked for Butte, Herrero & Hyde starting at $135.per two weeks — and I loved it there! ​”Yippie!”
While I was there in 1964, this ​“1965 Shell Chem­ical Calendar” was created. I was not able to watch Lowell Herrero as he painted. He painted in his cabin in the Sierra Mountains.

Calendar Cover 

Inside Front Cover 

The type under the words, ​“UNSURPASSED PAINTINGS” reads: The paint­ings in this calendar are by Lowell Herrero * The lettering and type design by Bill Hyde * Graphic design by Bruce Butte * Butte, Herrero & Hyde, San Francisco.

There, I learned what was needed to run an art studio. For their studio, they needed: a recep­tionist, researcher, a shopper for art supplies, a coffee-brewer and a ​“go-fer”. I mastered ​’paste-ups’, prepared their art samples and at a few times some small art spots were offered for me at my drawing board. I was the one to run to the post office, sending their jobs to New York, Cleve­land or Chicago. Sending a finished assign­ment now, is by computer or delivery services from your door.
All that was needed then, is no longer needed today. Artwork still may be with paints and paper, but a computer offers choices that weren’t even dreamed of.

Working from home is now accept­able (no matter what Elon Musk says) but social inter­ac­tion, joining adver­tising clubs, inter­viewing with art studios or ad agen­cies and always listening for a person’s art needs… still is neces­sary to make contacts for work. I received many jobs as my exam­ples and avail­ability became known in San Francisco.

I would have worked for BH&H for years, but I became a free-lance artist when the part­ner­ship broke up. Each partner still wanted help and the rate, in 1965, was $5 per hour for a begin­ning artist and $2.50 for general office work. This change, all happened so fast that my first invoices in May were written by hand. I show my very first billing. By June, I was using an avail­able type­writer. Later I created a sign for the door, Someone had given me this esti­mate sheet to figure costs. I used it for 40 years!

First Invoices 

Esti­mating Sheet 

Very large clients also had small jobs, just right for me. Two Shell Chem­ical Company reps. were working with Bill Hyde (he would not have accepted simple small jobs). Shell needed these two printed items. They knew what they wanted and did not want any design offers from me. I had learned how to do ​“mechan­i­cals”, so it was just ​“good busi­ness” to easily follow their directions.

Shell Folder 

Shell Open House 

Shell Critters 

My first artwork for this big corpo­ra­tion was of these garden pests to be printed on a large bag.

When a client was looking for an artist, they often would try to see what could come cheaper, because a beginner could not command a high rate of pay. I would often say that I’d give it a try. That some­times became a long working relationship…and then there were a few times when I didn’t even get paid. But I did learn a lot.

There are many unknown desti­na­tions, when just starting out. I show the variety of clients for a free-lance artist.
And I tell also the tran­si­tions that can grow from an initial posi­tion of employ­ment. Because I worked for myself, I could accept the wide variety of assign­ments: stationary and busi­ness card design, annual report design, logo designs, pack­aging, children’s books, out-door signage, how-to instruc­tions, store displays, T‑shirt designs, illus­tra­tions, cartoons, lettering, photog­raphy, and later, web design,

My first art spots were simple, then i took on bigger chal­lenges. My clients couldn’t have been more varied. I had no past knowl­edge of the subjects assigned, from auto-dealers’ ads to reli­gious brochures.

World of Dance 

Line Art 

San Mateo Mutual Savings 

Walston 

The Daily Double 

Cali­fornia Casualty 

Pacific National Bank 

Outdoor Billboards 

Chicken of the Sea 

Brochure Catholic Home Messenger 

Kaiser Gypsum Folder 

CHM Brochure 

Artists who had one drawing style could become known and successful with that one style. Illus­tra­tors also often worked for art studios or ad agen­cies, The subjects of their creative efforts were only those that contracted with their employ­ment. Many art direc­tors moved on to free-lancing with their talents of art, photog­raphy and some even opened their own small agency.

One great story, wait — two, no, three:

1 — We know of a top creative director, Hal Riney, who joined BBDO-San Fran­cisco moving from the mail room to head art director and finally creative director in 1968.

Our friend, Sandra Ford Karpman worked at ILM and I met her as she played soft­ball with the ILM team. She told us that she was initially hired as a jani­to­rial person at ILM (George Lucas’ Indus­trial Light and Magic). She quickly became ​“artist”.
From 1992 to the early 2000s her talents grew and then she moved to PIXAR. Sandra now has a huge list of credits with ILM and PIXAR ! in those days the Karp­mans were raising three young sons and still, she would ride her bike across the Rich­mond / San Rafael Bridge to the Pixar’s loca­tion. And then, after work she would some­times pedal south to the SF/ Oakland Bay Bridge, through SF to the Golden Gate Bridge, then north to home in San Rafael. (Go, Girl!)

ILM Softball 

Our thank yous to IMDb.

3 — We know of Stan Dann when he was part of a a three man studio (w/John Licht­en­walner and Edward Diff­end­erfer): 222 Group at 40 Gold Street. At the same time, Stan was carving custom wood signs and doors. This talent became papular in the 1960s with archi­tects and later, fine art collec­tors. His work became fine art — what Stan calls, ​“Wood Reliefs”. You can see, his creations on-line: http://​www​.stan​dann​.com

Stan Dann’s Suns 

Stan Dann’s Bike 

Stan Dann’s Stair Stepper 

Cala Lily Shoe 

Stan Dann 

Fmbar­cardero Cour­tesy Lynda Dann 

Stan Dann had a show at the Nut Tree, CA, exhibit on May 19^th through September 20, 1977. These images of various suns, from the Nut Tree poster, doubled as Stan’s self-promo.

I did little as self-promo. I needed a card to hand out. Finally I created this full color sheet as a ​“leave behind” but this was when I was plan­ning to retire so I never used it.

Busi­ness Cards and Envelopes 

Promo (these are floppy disks) 

Seeking Assignments 

Dial-A-Style 

Looking back, we all can remember the paths that we took. Just getting a job at ​‘entry level’ where you wanted to be, was the first step. Then our efforts, and even talents that we didn’t even know we had, moved us along.
I am not so sure all would be so different now, for those, just starting out.

Ann Thompson