I've been around long enough to remember rubylith overlays and pasting up copy changes letter-by-letter. On my first computer, I had to imagine three-colour brochures using a black-and-white monitor the size of a letterbox.

One of the best things about this work is the variety of challenges — from conceptual to creative to technical — I enjoy them all.

Then there are the deadlines. From my chair at the computer I once watched the sun rise and set, and rise again, and then fell asleep over my birthday dinner before going back to work for another twelve hours.

My favourite graphic design moment was sending a plastic dinosaur leg to the silkscreener with a circle marked on its knee, so he could match that perfect shade of purplish-red for some real estate signs.

After years of freelancing in the big city, I moved to a small coastal community. It's a place where logo work is a bit scarce because designs either come to people in their dreams or they just ask the universe for one.

Since then I've been focusing on book cover design. I'm passionate about my work and couldn't imagine doing anything else. Okay, to be perfectly honest, I did fantasize once about selling my computer and becoming a garlic farmer, but that was only briefly.