1983-1987 were my intense technical rendering years. I began at Modern Engineering Service Company in Warren Michigan. It was the #1 independent automotive design company in the world. The Big 3 automotive companies would subcontract them for design testing and technical graphics.

My natural ability and previous training at CDC were so well received that I walked in to check the place out and was seated and hired immediately put to work doing technical graphics for parts manuals.

I was the 3rd Black male hired in the entire building. The constant stares made this even more obvious. But my smile is always my deadliest weapon so I bridged the gap pretty quickly.

These renderings were done by cutting out pieces of transparent film with scalpels and carefully placing them wherever they belonged.

These huge boards are typically 3'x4' ft or 6' x 8' ft or larger but had details on them that could be as small as 1/10th of an inch!

There was no margin for error. If a project board was even a human hairs thickness off it often came back with that spot circled to be redone. That was exciting and scary at the same time!

But there was something exhilarating about being in a room full of the best of the best artists and them being exited to see MY work.

The down side was being laid off frequently after large projects. The other artists were used to it but I'll never get used to being laid off.

So after Modern I went to General Dynamics and then the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up and the government audit froze all of their projects and we were all laid off.

So I moved onto Time and Pioneer Engineering until I realized that the military vehicles we were working on would mostly be used against peoples of color. After that layoff I didn't return and instead moved back to Lansing, MI.

I still do freelance projects in that vein as needed if they don't directly contribute to the destruction and abuse of peoples of color...

Industrial graphics tend to be so classified that it is rare to be allowed these types of examples for a portfolio. Luckily these were 15 years ago.

These boards were typical of our assignments. We would be given so many hours to complete them because of how they were bidded for. So there was HUGE pressure not to make ANY mistakes. Any extra time you needed would give the person at the next stage less time to do their job properly. A clumsy person could make enemies there very quickly and wouldn't last too long...

Stage 1 was for a pencil layout to be done based on a computer model.

Stage 2 was for an ink tracing emphasizing certain kinds of borders and solid areas and deemphasizing hidden surfaces.

Stage 3 involved figuring out what needed to be where and researching to exactly match all specifications according to the tolerances and parts involved.

Stage 4 involved researching the best way to present the information needed in the most visually pleasing manner consistent with the established practices of the company.

Stage 5 involved acquiring all materials needed. For these boards that meant the many colors of film according to the exact uses and getting info on the (exact) parts that belong with each specific board.

Stage 6 cutting everything out of film with scalpels instead of drawing with ink or paint and joining them with no room for buckled edges, bubbles,etc..

Stage 7 involved making the signs involved adding type by hand (no PC's existed then) and lining the edges with colored markers to exactly match the main fields.

Stage 8 involved making all of the wires,connectors and parts out of thin paper or film. Next those edges were lined with the base color as well and placed where appropriate.

Stage 9 next came airbrushing for realism.

Stage 10 was finally checking for any obvious mistakes.

Stage 11 involved having someone else check it and preparing it to ship out.

Stage 12 involved moving on to the next board in a hurry.