I began my career as a designer and copy editor in newspapers. It was an experience that presented tremendous opportunities and significant challenges, all of which combined to make me a better designer and communicator.
There were amazing opportunities because I had great latitude to push the boundaries of newspaper design and creative colleagues who helped to spark my imagination. The challenges, meanwhile, included the daily news cycle and tight deadlines. Five days a week for six years, I helped produce an entire section from scratch in a matter of about five hours (and half the content wouldn't be available until the last hour), all while finding ways to exercise creativity within those constraints. After that experience, no deadline ever fazed me.
There were some opportunities for longer-term projects as well, such as the annual special sections we designed for upcoming football and basketball seasons, which were produced in a matter of a few days rather than a few hours. On such occasions, I relished the chance to pursue more ambitious designs, as shown in some of the examples below.
