We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful James A. Faulkner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with James A. below.

James A., thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Have you ever had an amazing boss, mentor or leader leading you? Can you us a story or anecdote that helps illustrate why this person was such a great leader and the impact they had on you or their team?

This is a bit of a toss-up. I was working for a Dutch Computer Company back in the mid to late 80s as a Benchmark Artist. The company was based in Torrance during that period and my position was to create package design and other graphics in order to sell the Aesthedes Computer System ( a pre-press computer graphics machine) to design firms,
other companies such as RJ Reynolds, Proctor, and Gamble. I was in a fairly corporate and corporate environment. I had to wear a suit and tie to work for four days of a week. While doing a presentation for a Los Angeles-based design firm the Rod Dyer Group I was greatly impressed by the work they were doing and their client base. Dyer created everything from Album Cover Design, Corporate Annual reports, Movie posters and One Sheet, Restaurant Logo’s, and Menu’s to name a few. While at a luncheon together with Dyer and Aesthedes, I was asked if I would like to come and work with the Rod Dyer Group. I quickly accepted the offer. Though my present employer at that time was not completely happy, I was given the opportunity to make the move. Rod Dyer was supportive and embraced my work as a designer and I soon became one of a group of Art Directors at his studio. Rod always made me feel welcome and I was excited to go to work with he and his team everyday while I was employed there.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have spent the last 40 years as a Graphic Designer both in Broadcast and Print. The majority of my TV work was doing production on a day to day. I originally started in print in the early 80s doing magazine production for Monterey Life Magazine, though this was short-lived I got a gig working in a media department for a major healthcare organization in Beverly Hills in 1985. At American Medical Internationa (AMI) I operated and designed slide presentations for various corporate leaders at that company.

Later, when our department at AMI was shut down, I moved on to TV work at ABC, FOX, CBS and Warner Bros. doing both union and non-union work. Over the years while working in TV doing production work and graphics I found myself with periods of time away due to show hiatus etc. During this period I did freelance work under my name and Faulkner Design.
My last TV gid was with Warner Bros in 2020 prior to the pandemic I have been working independently ever since.

The job market has been particularly challenging and at times frustrating. I have and had resorted to doing pro bono work just to find a new client base.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I spent many years doing production in TV and was seldom given the opportunity to share my own design skills and work. At Telepictures where I freelanced and was on staff for 20 years I was fortunate to work with two Creative Directors who
believed in, and were supportive of my talents as a designer. Sadly I can not say the same for the other entertainment companies that I worked for,

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

I recently attended a lecture on NFTs at Art Center College of Design here in Pasadena. I was interested to learn and hear about how the process works. The Dark Web within which NFTs live is very sketchy and plagiarism and theft of creative work in rampant. Its not for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.faulknerdesign1.net/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collage_antecedent/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/james.a.faulkner
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/notifications/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/boddington07

Image Credits
Credit on the Chris Dawson Album Cover: Photography Michelle Coe Photo.