Sharing My Story

My years with Narramore vocationally were set into a
creative routine of layout and design for the magazine
and other printed literature that NCF produced
(booklets, brochures). It was read, layout, design and
paste up from month to month and year to year.

However the 1980s was a time of tremendous change
within the graphic design profession. The digital age was
dawning and it made a tremendous, transforming and
lasting impact on publication design. I had the privilege
of being in on the ground floor of this revolution. Within
a couple of years of arriving at NCF I took an UCLA
extension class (November-December 1983) on
computer graphics. While this was a lecture class
(with no hands on) it started me thinking about the
future of what I was doing.

For the first five years I was at NCF we had our own
in house typesetter, Rilla Hubbard. She performed her
work on a high end type setting equipment to the
specifications that were required for our publications.
In 1987 Rilla announced her resignation from NCF.
At that time the publication department were faced
with several challenges. We could either try to find a
replacement for Rilla and train her on our typesetting
equipment (a high learning curve) or farm our typesetting
needs out to an outside vendor. Another possibility that
was beginning to present itself was the rising
desk-top publishing (dtp) option.

The dtp option basically folded the typesetting job into
that of the designer. Prior to his time I gave the type
specifications to the typesetter who produced the gallies
of paste up ready copy. The new dtp methods allowed
the designer to determine the layout of the publication
on screen complete with in place type that could be
printed out as ready made layouts for editorial proofing.
Essentially it eliminated the typesetter's job. At first
I was somewhat leary about this not so much that
I was costing anyone their job (Rilla had already gone)
but that I was taking on added responsibilities.
I wasn't sure I wanted them. This was a very different
way of thinking than what I'd been use to for the past
10 or 15 years.

With our computer savvy young editor Bill Henderson
we started investigating this option. We first looked at
the the emerging MS Windows. Both Bill and I were
not overwhelming impressed. Bill, almost as an after
thought, suggested we also review the Apple MacIntosh
option. Even at that time Apple was making waves
with its MacIntosh Computer. The MacIntosh II Apple's
first desktop model (as opposed to their modular single
box—MAC SE, etc) had just arrived on the scene.
The salesman proclaimed this machine with its 1 mb of RAM
and 40 mb hard drive as having more computation power
than the giant Univac computers of the 1960s that took
up a whole room to house.

We liked what we saw with the Mac and were shown an
early version of Pagemaker, the leading dtp program of
the period. The more we looked and evaluated the more
we liked the MacIntosh option. Before we made out final
recommendation one salesmen showed us a new Mac-based
dtp program that was just being introduced called Quarkxpress.
My initial reaction is that it was better (easier to learn)
than Pagemaker. We ended up getting the MacIntosh II with
a Apple Laserwriter and a copy of Quarkxpress. We had now
entered the digital age.

I felt and feel privileged to have had many years of experience
with the traditional cut and paste layout techniques and
was able to make the transition the the electronic, digital design.
I came into this at age 39. I made me feel good that I was
still able to learn new technologies. However, I realize
that the younger generations who have been raised
on desk top (or laptop) computers and other electric
gadgets are far more adapt with these wonder machines
that I ever could be.