“I believe we have two lives…the one we learn with, and the one we live with after that.”

So now it’s 1994, and for all practical purposes your poster series is complete. You’ve been on such a roll these last few years that you’re actually ahead of schedule, and at the moment you aren’t quite sure what to do with yourself. The last scheduled print is the one commemorating Milwaukee County Stadium but, […]

It’s a common theme in literature and film: a person journeys back to their childhood home only to discover that it’s so much smaller than they remembered. Mostly this is simply a matter of the person having grown since childhood, but it also reveals something about memory and perspective. Well, your childhood home remains in […]

These are the good times, aren’t they? In fact, years from now, you’ll look back at the early 1990s as one of the golden eras of your entire life—and at 1992 in particular as the golden moment in your art career. You are—right now—in a groove like never before, and I know you love it. […]

The year 1980 signaled everything that was about to follow. It began with the thrilling “Miracle on Ice” gold medal run of the U.S. Hockey team at the Lake Placid Olympics, and ended with the assassination of John Lennon at the gates of his apartment building in New York City. And that’s the way the […]

By 1988 it had become an annual rite of spring, and one of the clearer indications that you and your design firm had made it big: the parade of recently graduated graphic design students hoping to show you their books and maybe even land a coveted position with McDill Design. You and your friend Michael […]

The call came on a lazy Sunday afternoon in August, 1978. Your pregnant wife was taking a nap and you were reading the Sunday Journal. It was your friend, Bill on the phone and he sounded worried. Mostly he wanted to know if you’d heard from your mutual friend, Lorin. *         *         * You met […]

Even though you were born in the city of Milwaukee and therefore have every right to call it your hometown, the truth is that you’ve spent most of your life in the suburban outpost that is West Allis. You grew up there, attended St. Aloysius Elementary, Frank Lloyd Wright Junior High and finally Nathan Hale […]

The plan made perfect sense to you, didn’t it? But believe me, in years to come you will look back and cringe. In fact, you’re cringing already, aren’t you? The plan was to somehow get to the Esquire Theater in downtown Milwaukee, pass yourselves off as adults, and watch The Graduate, the movie absolutely everyone […]

Okay, first things first. Don’t tell anyone! Not for a while, at least. If Mom and Dad found out about it they’d kill you. And everyone else would refuse to believe it anyway. I know, I know! It isn’t every day three kids in their early-teens jump a freight train and ride it from West […]