My primary responsibility was to design and layout magazine pages for the company's primary publication, Hoard's Dairyman Magazine. My creative options were greatly limited by the editorial staff, so I did the best I could within their limitations. I was responsible for helping the company move into a computer-to-plate workflow; which greatly reduced the cost of publishing and allowed us to make last-minute changes up to press time. I was also the back-up for the Systems Administrator and helped maintain the company servers and also helped troubleshoot all computer problems in his absence — I was the primary go-to person for all Macintosh-related issues. Finally, aside from my responsibilities to the magazine, I also helped troubleshoot and flight-check commercial print work that came in through the company's print division.

During my time there, I became proficient with the following software: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Acrobat, and QuarkXPress.

I was in charge of the art staff in the art department and was responsible for assigning them work based upon their artistic strengths; ensured that they met their deadlines; reviewed and offered suggestions to their projects; had final approval/rejection of artwork; and handled many projects personally. I was also instrumental in moving the company into the computer age by advising purchase choices of computer hardware and software and was responsible for maintaining both. I became proficient in the use of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator during this period.

This was a screen printing company and some of the clients that I handled personally included: Miller Brewing Company, Pabst Brewing Company, Muscular Dystrophy Association, Scot Forge, Wisconsin Dells Retail, Alpine Valley Resort, Lake Lawn Lodge, The Abbey, Midwest Airfest, Harborfest (Racine), and many local retailers and school systems.

The company went out of business in 1998.

This was my first job after tech college. The Whitewater Register is a weekly newspaper that served the Whitewater, WI area. It also published the Palmyra Enterprise newspaper, another weekly. I was responsible for laying out display ads as per the customer's request. When I started, typesetting was done on a CompuGraphic Typesetter; line art and half-tone images were shot on a horizontal stat camera; and headlines were created on a headliner machine. All paste-up was done by hand. I was also responsible for creating and pasting up camera-ready artwork for commercial print orders as well.

The first Macintosh computers arrived in 1986, replacing the old typesetting technology. I taught myself how to use the computer on the job and have been working with Mac technology since then. I became greatly proficient in setting up display ads using MacPaint, MacDraw, and Aldus PageMaker.