Confessions of a Tech Junkie

MY NAME IS MIKE WILLIS AND I’M A TECH JUNKIE.

Jeff Golblum steps into his human fax machine.

I confess, I’ve done it all. Back in the early days, late 70′s, I started out on basic stuff. FAX. Good technology back then. FAX was like magic. You slid a paper into the holder, pushed a button, and like magic it was teleported and put back together at another machine miles away. Like The Fly except with better results.

Later on FAX wasn’t cutting it, I needed more. Something that would give me that technological buzz that FAX couldn’t produce anymore.

Me and Apple- we think alike. Not different.

That’s when I discovered MAC. It was 1985. MAC was introduced to me by a long haired college drop out named Steve Jobs. He and another dude had a funky company called Apple. I dug their logo man, with it’s cool rainbow colors. I thought- “far out man, that’s the name of MY company- “Rainbow Graphics“. Is that like, Karma or what? You mixed MAC with POSTSCRIPT and you had powerful design mojo going on. The sky’s the limit when you’re on MAC. Steve profoundly changed my life from that point forward.

MAC has always been my first choice, but I tried other stuff, sure; FLOPPY, ZIP, JAZZ, SYQUEST, OPTICAL, you name it- I hooked up with it.

I was cruising along. Trying different kinds of MAC. Tried a bit of TETRONIX then EPSON. Dug the colors of LCD and PLASMA.

Then something new hit the street. WWW. Also known as NET and WEB. When you were on WEB it was called “surfin’” because that’s what it felt like. It’s like “instant knowledge” was mine for the taking. At first, it was pretty mild. You used a modem to “surf”. You’d hear all these funky buzzes and pops and all of a sudden- BAM you were surfin’. Later DSL and CABLE came along. Of course, I upgraded.

Later I got hooked on a new Apple product, street name “iPOD”. Music, man, pure music to my ears.

In 2007 I realized I had a problem. I couldn’t stop. Everything that flashed looked good. By now my old buddy Jobs was every tech junkie’s “god”. He was putting out gizmos that would blow your mind. And then he did just that. Blew everyone’s mind. iPHONE, a technological marvel. I mean, what didn’t it have? It was dead sexy, you could talk on it, listen to music, watch movies, play games, take pictures. And the apps. Every conceivable thing you could want to do, there was an app for it. I wanted it, had to have it. I was out of control. I needed help. But there are no 12 step programs for tech junkies.

So I went cold turkey. Turned my back on the iPHONE. Oh sure, it was hard. All my friends got into iPHONE immediately. They’d give me their little smug looks while tapping and talking away.

So, I’ve been pretty good over the last 4 years. Oh sure, a little MAC here and there. But nothing really good, you know, really “tekkie”. Well… I did have one relapse… it’s for blog use only of course… not recreational…

My First Blog

OK- here’s the deal on blogging. Blogging is like jogging, except with a “B”. I haven’t written anything of significance since High School- 1978. And as with jogging, I’m a little out of shape- I’m feeling winded after only 3 sentences.

My lead designer, Jennifer Williams, has been after me to start a Blog. She’s like, “It’s easy, just do a Blog in the morning and Twitter throughout the day”. The similarities to bodily functions was not lost on me. If only it were that easy.

The voice you hear in this Blog will mostly be mine. My Blogs will consist of either my reminiscing or ranting about something. Jen will occasional post. It will most likely be about oddities that occur around the studio.

I will try and be accurate with dates and names. But I am lazy- so fact checking will be limited to a quick Google search or scratching my head before I write. If you happen to read something and know it to be inaccurate, please feel free to comment. Not that I will make any effort to correct the post, but I most likely won’t refute you either. Unfortunately I’ve been doing this a long time (graphic design) without keeping records. The only reference point I have is what kind of horrible fashion I was embracing at the time, or if it was pre-marriage or after marriage.

I have a self-deprecating sense of humor. I’m somewhat cynical, although I prefer to call it “keeping it real”. What you read here, I hope, you will find entertaining and perhaps even educational.

Client Profile: Lengthwise Brewery

Most people probably think of Lengthwise as the place that brought fresh brewed beer to Bakersfield. Probably because those same people forgot or never visited Bootlegger’s restaurant when it was open. Ralph Fruguglietti (owner of Frugatti’s) opened Bootleggers restaurant in the Ice House, just north of the Garces Circle off Chester Avenue, around 1994. It’s big draw was the brewery inside. A couple of dudes by the name of Jeff Williams and Darin Schwicker were put in charge of making the beer and managing the restaurant. Ralph even bottled two of the more popular flavors, Big Red and the Voluptuous Blonde ales. At the time we had done the logos for both Frugatti’s and Bootlegger’s, so Ralph commissioned us to design the labels for the bottles. Jim Bennett a talented illustrator working for me at the time, did the illustrations and designed the logos. His wife served as the model for the Voluptuous Blonde. This was pre-computer times. Both illustrations were painstakingly rendered with colored pencils.