I was working in an ad agency that landed a plum client: a Fortune 500 company’s new air-cargo startup. It was a great opportunity, because it was a high-visibility business that literally needed everything from the ground up — every brochure, every sign, every name badge, you name it.
It also needed something that was a dream project for graphic designers: a livery for its fleet of airplanes. As one of those people who can’t help but look up every time an airplane passes, I thought that was pretty cool. Then I saw the design proposals and said “uh-oh.”