Client: Wireless Dealer Magazine
Story by: Kathy Katcher, CEO & Publisher
Art Director: 2000 – 2010
Kirk Fuson, Wireless Dealer Magazine’s in-house art-director started working for the Wireless Dealer Magazine ten years ago, back then it was called the Wireless Dealer Network. As CEO and Publisher, I posted an ad on the back page of one of our issues for an art designer. Kirk Fuson responded to the ad within one hour of the post. He has been our in-house art designer since. I selected Kirk as our first featured employee of the year because he has not only been the man-behind- the-brand for Wireless Dealer Magazine, he is also a brand advocate for many of our advertisers representing hundreds wireless products.
Several funny stories and one absolutely dreadful story come to mind when thinking about Kirk and his value to the entire team at Wireless Dealer Magazine.
The first story is a funny one! Kirk started with us when we were printing our first edition of Wireless Dealer Magazine. To our surprise, 75% of our customers had not placed any print ads in any publication and it was our first time printing a magazine. Many of our advertisers were just learning how to clip pictures online and add them to a document adding a bit of product information for text. Many of advertisers submit artwork on deadline day or even later. Deadline day to get our magazine files to the printer is always a nail biter. The first edition of Wireless Dealer Magazine was no exception. Our printer kicked back 90% of our ads submitted and said all the colors are going to print gray or faded due to all the ads being designed in RBG vs. CMYK. There was absolutely no time to go back to that many advertisers and request new files. The magazine had 12 days to print and mail to be in stores by Dec 1st. Kirk and I cleared a huge amount of floor space in the printing building which was under renovation to be remodeled as loft business space. We laid out each ad on the floor covering 2,000 square feet and circled every single color in all the ads that did not print to it’s true color. Kirk went back to his office and began re-coloring every single color in all the ads with its CMYK color needed to print the color seen in each ad. We lost an entire week when the magazine should have been on the printing press. Kirk rescheduled a family vacation. I just about had a nervous breakdown printing our first edition. However, we did meet our deadline – all thanks to Kirk and we never had to bother one advertiser to redesign their ad all due to Kirk!
I will not mention any company names, but many of the companies you see today inside Wireless Dealer Magazine and on the EXPO floor began their very first print and online ads designed by Kirk here at the Wireless Dealer Magazine. We have grown up together and many of those advertisers now have their own in-house art department. I bet, they would have never thought at the conception of their first print ad or online ad by Kirk that one day they would need a whole department or full time art person.
The next funny story jumps to 2007 with the production of our CTIA Wireless EXPO edition. As we know, a lot of advertisers are so busy running their business that some wait until the very last weeks leading up to the deadline to let us know they need pages in the magazine and art design. The 2007/CTIA edition was a remarkable and unbelievable example of this! We had 35 customers come to us in the very last week to deadline who wanted ad space in the magazine and needed art design. Kirk claims he drank 24 cups of coffee a day that week and never slept until all the ads were designed, approved, and sent to the printer.
The dreadful story? This is one I hold close to my heart. Again, we were in the last week of publishing and this time we had minor changes and few ad adjustments. Kirk felt he could take a family vacation and handle these issues from the road and upload the magazine to the printer from his hotel when he arrived – I agreed. This trip was especially important because Kirk brother was in poor health and was cleared to be able to go on this family vacation. The day the magazine was to be uploaded to the printer Kirk calls and he get’s my voicemail and the very emotional message he leaves is that his brother just died and they were on the side of the road waiting for an ambulance to get there and he wasn’t going to be able to upload the magazine. I don’t know about you, but I am still amazed to this day that I was the second person Kirk called on that day. The best news is, Kirk revived his brother with three minutes of CPR. The ambulance response team was able to rush his brother to the hospital for stabilization! I saved that voicemail for almost a year as a reminder of the dedication of my team. Kirk remains the best designer in wireless in my opinion, and is the man-behind-the-brand of the Wireless Dealer Magazine and many of our advertising partners in the wireless industry.
