My Old’s Cool Journey
Cecilia Sveda, Creative in Chief of Minx Design
I’m an old-school print designer and learned design the old-fashioned way: BC – before computers. I cut my teeth (and fingers) on such design tools as X-Acto knives, rubylith, press type and rubber cement. As I celebrate thirty years of Minx Design, I reflect on my journey.
My Story
Second Grade
Grade School
As a kid, I loved to draw and make stuff. I took my dad’s yellow legal pads and happily drew and doodled. Old shoe boxes were transformed into hotels. Art was always my favorite class and I loved my art teachers. I knew early on that I would do something with art. I just didn’t know what form it would take.
My favorite grade school art projects. Typo spring construction paper, abstract paint pattern, coat of arms linoleum block and beware the Jabberwocky in marker.
I spent my summers outside – often in my grandmother’s garden or in her greenhouse. It was a great time to be a kid.
Grandma Rose cultivated my appreciation for organic shapes and all things nature. She was the epitome of old's cool. She made everything from scratch. She knitted, sewed, grew vegetables and made the most divine sweets.
High School
In high school, I explored art. I even took independent art classes. I studied ceramics, calligraphy and sumi art. I made banners, worked on the school newspaper, the year book and a literary magazine. I designed invitations and program covers for school events.
I would rove around with my orange drawing pad and sit on a milk crate for hours drawing flowers. I drew everything from weeds to wild flowers. Featured here: pokeweed, black-eyed Susan and sweet peas.
The Akron Beacon Journal’s “Design an Ad Contest” caught my eye. I entered two years in a row and won honorable mentions. I was on my way to a career in advertising.
High school banner. Be afraid of that type.
All hail to Claes Oldenburg – Pop art patriarch and soft sculpture icon. At 92, he’s still creating. He’s best known for his larger-than-life sculptures of every day objects like the “Free Stamp” in downtown Cleveland. I paid homage to Oldenburg in my monumental sized Datsun key fob and Exactime watch. These projects represent only a handful of times that I have sewed anything. My first all nighter happened with the making of the key fob. I broke my perfect attendance record to complete it. My art teacher promised an A if I got accepted into the Governor’s Scholastic Art Show. The key fob made it in and we headed to Columbus to see the show.
Old's Cool Tools
I landed at Kent State University to study graphic design. I discovered that design was a whole new way of thinking. What made good design? So much to learn. Point. Line. Plane. Texture. Mass. Rhythm. Color. Theory was great, but practicing it was hard. I didn’t think I was going to make it through that first year. Eventually, I got the hang of it and passed the yearly reviews. By graduation, my freshmen class of 300 had dwindled to 30.
Vis Org 1. Putting design theory into practice.
Art students were easy to spot on campus. In one hand they carried a big portfolio containing a variety of drawing papers, illustration board and t-squares. The other hand carried a tackle box laden with a myriad of tools needed to learn and practice the craft. Frequently, I thought I’d take flight with my my portfolio as I walked to class through the wind tunnel between the library and the physics building.
My big old portfolio was as big as me. When it was windy, it walked me to class.
Some of the many old's cool tools I toted around: (l-r) tackle box, registration marks, brayer, stat paper, French curves, drafting brush, Haberule, compass, one of many geometric templates, black gouache, press type shapes, proportion wheel rapidograph ink and pens tips, t-square, type specimen book, watercolor ink, type ruler, rubylith tape, super improved register marks and x-acto blades. Yes, I still have of all of these!
Learning design was an analog labor of love. We didn’t have fancy-schmancy computers. Xerox was as close as we got. I used photocopiers to manipulate and create art. Kinko’s was my “Cheers.” I went there often and everyone knew my name. Since everything was done manually, hand skills reigned supreme. Basic Studio Skills taught you how to draw type, create comps, use rapidographs and a slew of other tasks. One errant ink blob and you had to start all over. We used stat cameras to create halftones, press type to create headlines and color paper for illustrations. We measured in picas.
Xerox art.
Graphic Design 2: Cut paper.
Many old’s cool tools were needed to produce art and make it print ready. Print ready consisted of a mechanical or keyline – an artboard where all elements were precisely positioned. This involved using a t-square and triangle, cutting rubylith for screens, acetate overlays for color separations, type had to be spec’d and a service bureau would output galleys of type that had to be affixed to an artboard with rubber cement, spraymount or wax. Registration marks had to be applied to each overlay and line up through all the layers. Often, you had to go in make adjustments to the type with your X-Acto knife. Everything had to be constantly cleaned with thinner to remove ink and wax and rubber cement. The best way to “preview” your work was by squinting – all the paste up lines would disappear. It’s a wonder anything ever got done on time!
An old artboard showing a marker overlay, rubylith for screens and line by line adjustments to type.
My favorite college projects. Top, left – right: How to make a Molotov cocktail, icons of America, King John theatre poster, Pufferbelly watercolor, pointillism flowers, logo for Yoder Brothers – a horticultural company.
One highlight of my college days was Glyphix – a student-run design studio led by the redoutable John Brett Buchanan. It was a great experience that completely spoiled me. I shared it with Paula, John, Darius and Bob. We often worked through the night (we joked it was a 9 to 5 job...9pm to 5am) and came in early the next day because you just didn’t want to miss anything that happened in Glyphix. This is when the name “Minx” was born. Paula started calling me the Minx and the rest is herstory! A minx is a tease, a flirt. I’m not, but I like to think that my work is. It flirts with your eyes, lures you in and steals your heart.
Glyphix friends for life. L-R: Paula, StuART (more on him later), Minx, Darius, Bob and John.
Me with one of the founding titans of Kent State's School of Visual Communication Design: John Brett Buchanan.
I was so bad*ss old school, I handset the type on my senior project and printed it on a Vandercook press in Eric May’s Type High Press. It was a book entitled “No Deposit No Return: A Quest Story in Thinking.” It was my most insane project EVER. I worked around the clock in the letterpress room. I broke into the art building after hours and even slept in the press room. My skin smelled like solvent and my hands looked like they’d been in a fight. Towards the end, I had to pick up my pace and complete this beast of a project. I cheated and had Lesh Typesetting in Canton set galleys of “hot type” for me on their awesome linotype machines.
Senior project: sample spreads from my 1990 chef d’oeuvre that I wrote, designed, typeset and printed. In my intro I wrote: “No Deposit No Return is an outcome of my attempt to understand process, to become more in tune with my thinking ability so I can make better use of it, and in doing so, strengthen my skills. All of this involves trying to understand the mind, how it works, how it is and has been viewed and how we can take advantage of it.” I could go on, and I did, for 142 pages.
Turns out, my senior project was the best thing I ever did because it led me to my boone companion, StuART. Pre-Google, I did a lot of research in the KSU library and checked out many a book. I got to know the gents at the circulation desk. I had great convos with the animated desk manager, Bob. Eventually, another gent wormed his way into our conversations. That was StuART. He worked at the library until midnight and then made his way to the art building to help me with my senior project. He was tasked with putting all the individual lead type back into their proper places. We listened to oldies tunes all night while I printed my book. It was letter press love! Those who print together stay together. We celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary this year.
After School
Library love: StuART, me and Bob celebrating halloween.
20 years of ice cream toasts. Ice cream social after our wedding hike. Photo by Craig Megyes.
Before I finished my senior project, I worked for a hot minute as an in-house designer for a company in Canton with my Glyphix pal, Paula. Even though it was a short-lived stint, I made friends for life with Nino (above) and Wendy who also worked there. We celebrated Bastille Day in style. Photos by Paula.
Minx Design
I officially hung out my shingle on May 1, 1991. One of my first projects was designing a logo and stationery for one of the students in the industrial design program which was housed in the art building at Kent State. After that, I started the long, “fun” process of making cold calls and attended many early morning chamber breakfasts. I targeted the performing arts because of the cool work they did and figured I could be an affordable option. I got my foot in the door at a few places and began working with more and more non-profits and performing arts groups.
I letterpressed my business stationery at the Type High Press. Eventually I stepped into the digital age and got my first used monochrome Mac.
Cool Meetings
I’ve always been a night owl. I entered the world at 6pm on the dot. So my day started at night. There is nothing more satisfying and empowering than creating while the rest of the world sleeps. As a result, I generally have a nothing before noon policy for meetings. I’m not a coffee drinker. I’m not a breakfast eater. But I do LOVE ice cream. For many years now, I’ve been having “Ice Cream Meetings” or ICMs – my version of meeting for coffee. Why have an ICM? Because work should be fun! Ice cream puts most of us in a good mood and prompts big smiles and happiness. Fun enhances creativity and productivity...and that’s good for business. Too busy to meet up a the nearest ice cream parlor? No problem. Armed with my cooler of Klondike Bars, the mobile ICM will come to you. Give it a try. Make your meetings cool and meet over ice cream.
I’ve built my identity around ice cream.
My stylish ICM cigar box purse created by my writer/artist friend Victoria Reynolds. Michael Trecaso’s Mary Coyle is my ICM hot spot. A 4th generation family-owned business, this vintage ice cream parlor makes homemade ice cream, Italian food and features vintage decor. Old’s cool at it’s finest.
Today, I’m still an old print dog and not hep on all the tech. I have too many paper swatch books and I love the smell of ink in a press room.I’m grateful for my old-school training and give thanks for all of my art and design teachers:
John Brett Buchanan
Joan Inderhees
Jerry Kalback
Craig Lucas
Eric May
Sr. Marilyn Jean Mihalic
Bruce Morrill
Sr. Janet Schlichting
Karen Skunta
Steve Timbrook
Doug Unger
Cherie Ure
Gingr Vaughn
j.Charles Walker
Kathy WarrinerThanks to my many colleagues, clients and friends who continue to make my journey cool. This ice cream toast is dedicated to you.
