A Little Background
When I moved back to Michigan from NYC in the late 90’s, I knew I wanted to do something like graphic design. I had an art background and loved working on my Mac, but I was basically unemployable with a painting degree and two years of retail experience in the big city. Fortunately I landed a job at a small pre-press service bureau where I was able to develop my skills with software like Photoshop and Illustrator.
It was decided that we needed a website, and that job landed squarely on my shoulders. Though I had messed around with making pages in Adobe PageMill (anyone remember that?) I’d never really thought of doing web design. The decision to make the website in-house and to make me responsible for it was the start of my love affair with (and sometimes short naps in) the computer books section at the local Barnes & Noble, consuming large amounts of caffeine, and spending lots of time mastering things like pop-up windows, Flash intros, and image preloading techniques. All of which no one uses anymore. But hey, that’s progress. Time to spend inordinate amounts of time figuring out something else.
At first, developing websites was just enjoyable extra after-work activity, but after a few years it got to be the reason I was up until 2 a.m. every night, and falling asleep during the day.
I decided to go full-time freelance work for myself in April 2006. Why? For one, I can’t handle being up until 2 a.m. every night anymore. Also, I didn’t like not being able to help my clients until “after 5”, especially if it was something that was mission-critical for them. And finally, with all the planets aligned just so, I had the chance to work for myself doing what I love to do. My wife is behind me, and my dog loves the idea of being let out more often during the day. Who could turn the opportunity down?
Things have gone quite well so far, and the future is looking good for Masuga Design, LLC. Thank you for your interest!
