I guess everyone has a reason, behind what they are doing and where they are in life and what there passions are, and here at The Wedding Framer, things are no different.
"I was like a sponge learning new things, ideas and techniques, and all the while, for the first time beginning to pay my own way in life".
If this was a scene from the blockbuster film "Back To The Future" the dial would be in rewind, and would be set to 1973.
It was around this time I used to go with my Dad to the now defunct, printers Beck & Partridge, he worked at in Seacroft, Leeds.
My Dad was an apprentice trained Compositor (type setter), and I was fascinated with the hustle and bustle and the sights, smells and sounds of a fully operational print room. From the type setting, art studio, design and ink rooms, through to the single colour flatbed letterpress presses and to the huge B1 4 colour lithographic presses.
I realised from the outset I was smitten, and years later after my schooling, I took up an apprenticeship as a Lithograpic Artist, and along side this studied Graphic Design and Typography on a day release basis at Kitson College of Technology in Leeds.
This apprenticeship was to City & Guilds standard, and lasted a full 5 years. Each and every day was fascinating in its own way, with no two days ever the same.
Also the college work had us looking back at how things used to be within the Printing Industry. From setting type by hand through to the halogen arc bellow cameras, and spending many an hour locked away in a darkroom.
Fast forward, and with college over, the computer revolution began to gather pace and things were changing, and changing at an alarming rate. Computers were at the forefront of everything, and the graphics industry was heading for a huge wake up call.....
If only I'd known then, how all the late nights, endless cups of coffee, training and eye for detail would come flooding back some 30 years later. Completely different techniques, but all the same old principles still apply.
Computers have changed the world and how we do things, but doing things the traditional way, still has its place........