What a blast from the past.
After leaving "National Image Makers" a company who provided Genigraphics Business slides, I was hired by Spectravideo (37 Street) as a staff graphic artist sometime around 1982, with the recommendation of the late Steven Levenson who then was working on his Doctorate in Computer Science, and served as content consultant of sorts. I was introduced to Merv Fong, the company's art director, and soon after, was given a working space which was actually the Closet of the Company's President's (the infamous Harry Fox) Office. So for a while (About 7 months) I used to work inside that closet, where most of the logos and covers and line art was created using Rapidographs, paper cuts, and Letraset. The Oldfashioned SPECTRAVISION then SPECTRAVIDEO logos where "upgraded" by me, and the logos for most of the intial titles where created by myself, under the art direction of Merv Fong. Later on, when the 318 was ready for distribution, we "upgraded" the overall branding again, using GENIGRAPHICS transparencies, which I created, hence the then "slick" computer graphics coloring and backgrounds. I was also responsible for the line illustrations and charts, which, now look like dinosaurs to me. This period was ideed very exciting, in the dingy little offices which served also as the warehouse for the watch company... The atmosphere was one of risk and discovery, the money was lousy, but the people were funny and alive. The SVI logo was created by me in Plainview, which was a pain to get to everyday. There's a lot more to say, but maybe some other time. I still have a pretty much Mint SV318, with all the documentation and quite a few of the boxed software titles, hidden and well protected. I also have some of the original art which I and others created for the software packages, some which are pretty good, even for today's standards.
Of all the people from that time I will never forget Harry, of course, who was a compelling leader, who convinced many of us to invest in Spectravideo's stocks and of course, we lost it all. I personally lost almost $7000 which was about 10 times more than I should have been able to afford. I don't believe that I earned that much back then in the whole period I worked for them... But, oh, well... And of course the dynamic, resourceful and Multitalented Merv Fong, who had the design sensibilities of a peddler, but the marketing/advertising saavy of a true Madison Avenue Pro. Merv was a great friend too. We also had some very good looking receptionists, and some chinese techies who embodied the predecessors' spirit of what we call today geeks, but back then were called computer wizards....
I do feel previliged to have had the questionable honor of some of the better branding and design which is evident in some of the documents and images of the spectravideo materials. Ask me anything you want... I will do my best to answer. Remember, I was IN THE PRESIDENT's OFFICE...
NIck Moscovitz
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