The Matalon Collections
Rumaging through the archives in the deep dark recesses of my old hard drives, I found the third book I ever worked on in its entirety [ the first being a project for Utech, the second a 100 page building services analysis of the USAID building ] and the third… was the first project I got fresh out of undergrad architecture school.
That was 1999.
I was at my best friend Glenville’s house, when my grandmother called to say that Joseph A. Matalon called to say he was looking for me. At the time… that was like having Michael Jackson, or Bill Gates call you at home.
“How did he get my number?” I asked her. Grandma was not concerned. She just wanted me to call back, and not “dilly dally” as she would say.
So I called, met him, got clear instructions and necessary resources; then spent the entire summer documenting his art collections. I had never archived an art collection before. I was so nervous that I took forever, carefully documenting every single bit of information that I could, about every single painting… without ever bumping or scratching one of them.
This is one of two art collections archived for Mr. Matalon. It was one of the best projects — for one of the three best clients — I ever had.
Mr. Stanigar recommended me; just as he saved me when I could not finish the first book at Utech, two years earlier [ which I taught myself Publisher to do ]. Come to think of it… I taught myself Pagemaker to do the second book [USAID] and QuarkXpress to do the third [Matalon Collections].
Now that I am doing the book for the European Union [ done with InDesign CS3] Having done the UNICEF calendar and In a Clean Ghana booklet last year [ in Indesign CS2... up from CS, 2.0, 1.5 and 1.0... the replacement of PageMaker ], I recognize how far I have come with print publishing.
I got my first copy of PageMaker from Mrs. Parchment, for my G3 powerbook [having worked 2 jobs all summer, in the UK to save for] in November 1998… she was kind enough to do a flyer for me years earlier [July 1994]… when graphic design was a mystical art to me… like magic and sorcery.
“How did she do that?” I thought looking at her work on the flyer.
It is good to look back at where you are coming from, to see where you are, with a positive outlook.
Mr. Matalon remains one of the best people I ever had the pleasure of working for… now almost ten years and three countries later. Mrs. Morgan (aka SIR… my other mother) and Roger at Island, I respect in a similar way.
So much so that I would work for Mr. Matalon for free; yet he never asks me to. I respect him for that especially.
When I had no tools, he said… here is a computer, with software… here is my personal camera with lenses… here is a tripod and an easel… if you need to travel, here a reliable means of transportation.
In many ways, I want to be like him when I grow up.