the go-to guy...
In the summer of 1979, I was working at a printshop to pay for a nice used car, my father got for me. That was the deal- maintain a B+ avg in high school, get a job, go to college, and I would get a car. I never thought that after 43 years, I would still be doing the same thing. However I have always been an artist, coming from a long line, starting with my grandmother, my mother, then me. Just had a knack for it I guess, since I did attend Art Center Pasadena for advertising and figure drawing when I was only 16.
My first job ever was at a company called Meiji Art/Litho, in Alhambra, CA. A real nice place to work. Getting trained to be a designer from the ground up by a person who is no longer with us named Ewao Matsunaga. He taught me how to ink, do paste-up, run the stat camera, etc. Back then we didn't have computers, so it was all done by hand. Drafting table, T-square, rubber cement, xacto knife, rapidograph. Typesetting was done on a machine made by IBM called a Composer. You could do some basic body copy with it, and program it to be formatted a certain way. Then we used Letraset rubdown letters for headings, then non-photo light blue pencils to draw guidelines so the type lined up and centered right. Boy have we/I come a long way.
I stayed there for a few years, and then started college at CSULB. Moved to Redondo Beach to live with my mom, went to school, and worked at a small design shop in Torrance. Sue Stamm, a nice lady who trained me even further into all areas of graphic design and how to run a graphic design business as well as I was her right hand man.
The next door lady ran a typesetting system called Compugraphics. A huge improvement from what I was used to. I worked there for a few years, but the owner decided to move away to Washington so I had to find a new job. I bounced around for quite some time from printshop to design firm to animation company and even worked at a gallery for a couple years. Finally landed a job in Aerospace at TRW. Worked there for a couple years and got layed off to be rehired at McDonnell Douglas Flight Training Systems where we built graphics for the Flight Attendant and Mechanics Training School. At this point I was still doing most of the work by hand using rapidograph and wax, but was trained on a CAD system called Intergraph Microsystems.
After getting caught in a 10,000 person layoff, I decided to go back to school and took some mac graphics courses. Then got a job at a magazine pubs company called Bobit Publishing working for an Automotive Install magazine. After many years I had climbed the ranks up to art director and finally decided to go on my own.
SO here it is, 40 years later, DSK Designs is now a corporation. I have had some great clients over the years such as Lexus, Toyota, UCLA, and my longest lasting client a bus company called North American Bus Industries, Inc. My customers refer to me as the GoTo guy cause I can do just about any type of job, and get it done right away and with great attention to detail. I take pride in my work and always pull through no matter how difficult the challenge may be. So let me take this opportunity to say hello, and let's talk about what I can do for you.
2023 by David S Kasai