In the years before QuarkExpress™, PageMaker™, InDesign™ and Photoshop™ the mark of a true professional was that little designers case completely outfitted with all the tools required for the job. The case, itself could be made out of metal, canvas cloth or even corrugated plastic. It needed to measure no bigger than a regular piece of paper but required a depth of two inches. This kind of tool kit could easily fit into a backpack, a large pocketbook or even a brief case.
In spite of its diminutive size, the designer’s tool kit was big enough to hold all the tools of the trade for the day’s operation. This included one indestructible metal triangle; a corked backed metal straight edge; a Schaedler Precision Rule™, able to measure down to 1/64 of an inch! In fact there was a standard joke that if an art director asked a paste up person to move something 1/32 of an inch (and this request was often made), one would go back to one’s drafting table, count to ten and return to the AD without moving anything. The AD always approved the change.
The job required a proportion wheel to calculate the % of change needed to enlarge or reduce the size of an image); single-edged razor blades or an X-acto™ knife with extra blades a rubber cement eraser; several Rapidograph™ pens; a red and ‘non-repro’ blue pen; drafting pencils and permanent black ink. One might have an ordinary matte knife or a fancy matte knives that had snap off blades that allowed for the front end to be broken off as it became dull to expose a new razor sharp edge.
One was like a doctor making house calls performing the delicate surgery of ‘paste-ups and mechanicals’. Many freelancers got cut as they scored cardboard and made columns out of sheets of type. A job could involve little notice as to when the patient needed treatment or how long the procedure might last. It could last for only a day (that was the minimum and the down side). But, on the upside, it might last a week, a month and sometimes, if one got really lucky, the length of someone else’s maternity leave.
NEXT: The Freedom of Freelance, making one’s own hours.
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