My first design job out of college was working for Winterland Productions in San Francisco. Winterland was founded by Bill Graham and specialized in merchandising the top acts in the music industry and was responsible for some of the most recognizable concert and retail t-shirt designs of the 20th century.
Growing up in the midwest, and attending college in the south, the call of the west coast was strong. And when I saw a story one day on MTV about the concert t-shirt industry and Winterland, I immediately designed and mailed a crazy postcard size resume and got a call from them a few weeks later. The CD saw promise and said if I was moving out, she would give me an opportunity to work the day shift making $8 an hour. Deal.
Too bad my first day of work was October 17th, 1989 the day of the big earthquake. Two weeks later I was back at my dream job, designing t-shirts, posters, tour books, and pinback buttons from concept to final print-ready art utilizing digital and practical tools like colored pencil, paint, airbrush, photography, and photocopy. One of the best parts was meeting with bands and musicians like LL Cool J, Soundgarden, Joe Satriani, Ian McCullough, and New Kids on the Block and working with clients like Levi’s.
