28 January 2009

More ancient Rico history

Having stumbled upon a stash of old portfolio material, Rico says he's still proud of the work he did on Studio, the magazine of the Western Art Directors Club in Palo Alto, many moons ago. (How many? 1985...)
Volume 1, Number 1 had a nice photo spread of the WADC board of directors (including Rico, along with Larry Wright, Lauren Smith, Bob Weaver, Barbara Zenz, Marilyn Martin, Gil Tutone, Randy Hull, Sandra Rath, and Larry Williams, most of whom, at this remove, Rico says he hardly remembers, sorry); an article (written by Rico) on the Cray computer used by Digital Productions in LA; an article about Primo Angeli, a famous San Francisco designer; and a lot of pretty graphics.
It was a short-lived (only a few issues) production, but it was nice while it lasted...
Longer-lived, because it was actually lucrative, was Graphics Journal, first published by Sandpiper Publications in Mountain View, California back in November of 1983. The publisher, Frank Sisti, is (sad to say) dead now, but Rico was the originator of the publication (a companion to Sisti's long-running Printing Journal), and its managing editor. The advertising manager was a man who became a good friend of Rico's, Dwight Mitchell, until he (the dumb sumbitch) died, too. Fortunately, Rico has not, as of yet, joined them, wherever they are...
Graphics Journal is also where Rico discovered and first bought the Berkeley Oldstyle font from ITC (after a complicated process; the font wasn't really released yet), which he uses (to the exclusion of almost everything else) in all his own books (which you can buy here).
The magazine had, on every cover, a section we called (because it was, this being a tabloid) 8x10, which featured illustrations and (mostly) photos from local artists and photographers. One special one (to Rico) was the one where he published the previously-unpublished photo of a couple of Corsairs from WW2, taken by his late uncle:
Some other bits of Rico's history that turned up whilst searching for the Graphics Journal cover, including an issue of the newsletter for the Old Baldy Civil War Round Table (now being done by Don Wiles):the newsletter of the Faultline Shootist Society, now mostly defunct, out in Gonzales, California:Border Beat, where Rico had a couple of his stories published (for free, dammit):and a promotional flier for the Timothy Patrick Miller presentation of Ambrose Bierce: Live on Stage, which is where Rico got to meet the inestimal Mr. Miller (with whom he's going to film, come the spring of 2010, Zone of Fire in and around Austin, Texas):

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous28.1.09

    Rico, let's have more rooting around in your old boxes and dusty stuff. This is fun!

    ReplyDelete

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