A Letter from the President

John Rice

Tramps like us…

I was more than a little saddened to hear of the passing of Danny Federici, a victim of melanoma. To many, he was probably the least well known of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, semi-hidden behind his keyboard ensemble. On stage, his distinctive electric organ sound and accordion, was prominent in many of the songs in the group’s bevy of recordings. Danny was already in an established local band when he invited Bruce to join them and the legend began.

I guess reading his obituary was another reminder of our mortality and I fondly recalled my first “Boss” concert in London during his “River” tour long ago. So impressed was I with the three hours Bruce performed, that the rest of the audience and myself left the arena in almost total silence, stunned by the singer’s energetic power and vivid, cinematic lyrics, and complemented by a powerhouse band. I was so awed by the show that I set about designing my own mini poster as a celebration of a newfound musical hero and a gesture to my friends who steered me in his direction. I thought that the best approach was to keep the concept simple but striking, and to not make some hokey collage. The main visual was a 65-line screenshot converted from the 4-color image of Bruce from the back of the “Darkness on the Edge of Town” album cover.

My idea was to outline Bruce’s image and add the band’s name and event date in a fancy typositor face. I broke the colors down to yellow and black duo-tone and chose a rough, uncoated stock to give it some “street” edge. My company’s comp department was used to printing and assembling high-quality package comprehensives for presentations and photo-shoots and, with the promise of few beers at the local pub, printed a short run of about ten posters. I eagerly distributed to my loyal Bruce friends and felt proud of my accomplishment. I think this passionate foray into a simple design, conversion to artwork and then the finished printed product based on my own idea, helped boost my decision to continue my career in print production and learn more about the production process.

I started with a hungry heart and still feel I was born to run in the direction of this crazy business.

This Achievement Awards banquet is almost upon us and would like to take this opportunity to salute this year’s nominees and wish them luck. The awards committee has come up with yet another fun and very different theme – “Tribal Quest.”I wonder who this year will end up on the endangered species list!

See you at our final 2008 program later this month.

Till then,

John