When I was near 16 years of age, I had the dumbfounded luck to be hired on as a production artist in training for American Outfitters; gifting me a chance at a career I wanted earlier than most people could even dream of a lucky break. The result skyrocketed my career into areas of design/development where I manage and train employees years older than me, and find myself working day in and day out in a job I love.
None of that could have happened had I not been given the proper foundation… so many schools forget the sincere importance of a technical background or, if anything, the origin of those programs and terms you’re using. Designers in print often can’t layout their brochures or catalogs properly and require hours of production artist redevelopment simply because no one taught, or stressed, the need to train that left side of your brain just as much as your right. Designers in web often rush themselves into dreamweaver lessons not even assuming that the same amount of time it’d take to learn a new programs icons and file menus, it would take to learn how to code it properly and intelligently in half the time… it intimidates you because they put that in your head, code is just like writing. It is art. When a painter is an expert in his craft, he knows the technical requirements that come with mixing his paint or the canvas that’s needed or the brush that’s right for the techniques.
I didn’t understand this at 16. Steve Bojesen understood this at 25; and as I gracefully snubbed the idea of making a silkscreen to improve my skills as a desktop artist, he walked me through the process of a basic 2 color Illustrator design – to film separation – to lining up those films and punching it – to processing and stripping those films onto a silkscreen. He spent numerous hours over the next few years explaining how wrong my horrendous Corel Draw separations were, and those changes guided me into masterful Adobe Illustrator layouts for production. He taught me about PMS colors, process colors, color science and the techniques used to mix colors for silk screens. He showed me how a silk screen is stretched and the frames built. He loaded those frames and pudding inks on presses and showed me how to make shirts that cook or are UV flashed, and how to print on other materials, or the occasional poster design. Most people would never take the time to teach a young artist, but Steve Bojesen taught me more in those few years with American Outfitters than any college professor I ever had.
It was an interesting time, he was one of many people around me every day of my life that offered advice into not only careers, but in life. I had the fortune of watching his impressive Illustration and Painting skills grow into the talents of a great fine artist, and the gift of trading the printing skills he gave me into training him on his first strong migration from fine artist with a pencil, to graphic designer with a mouse. Shortly thereafter, he told me how he was looking to work as a designer for Harley Davidson in the Milwaukee area, and spent hours over the weekend doing these beautiful illustrations and paintings representing changes in the Harley image; which landed him the job and onto a new career.
Before I moved to San Francisco he married his beautiful fiancee of the time, Tina (I knew no one but employees at that wedding, all 5+ years older than I was, and had little to do but joke around, see how happy Steve and Tina were, and try and slip the occasional beer) – he told me how he wanted to have children, but he was so afraid he couldn’t support them and that they and his wife deserved more. When Steve and Tina had their first little girl, I told him congratulations and asked him how he felt, he said:
I don’t know why I ever waited. Don’t ever wait.
Which to a young man debating on moving clear across the country to a place that he’d never been with no friends or family out there, was more than a little inspiring, and I never forgot it.
In the end, I didn’t know Steve well, nor his family, and I was no more an acquaintance than a friend. A co-worker that joked with you on breaks or took lunch on occasion or taught you a thing or two as you had one too many at the company golf outing. He was always full of energy and humor – or full of fire when he was angry with a job coming down the line. He’d talk about how he loved the Beastie Boys, and shared the dual disc greatest hits with us when it first hit CD.
Even though I wasn’t much in his life, he helped mold me into the person I am today. A resounding thank you would not do his sincerity and transparency justice, but I thank him nonetheless. When I heard that Steven C. Bojesen passed July 4th, 2006 in his prime at 34 with such abruptness, I regret I never thanked him when he was alive… and I don’t know why I ever waited. He seemed to be a good, decent person – and he was a mentor in my life.
My best wishes and genuine condolences to Steve’s parents, his siblings, his two little girls, his wife Tina, and his surviving relatives.
Sincerely,
Brady J. Frey
Donations
A college fund for Olivia and Annelise Bojesen is being setup by the surviving family, though it may take some time to finalize. For those of you wishing to donate now, check or money order is the preferred method. Please make all checks out to Tina Bojesen, and mail them to:
PIASECKI-ALTHAUS FUNERAL HOME
In care of Tina Bojesen
3720 39th Avenue
Kenosha, WI 53144
The phone number for PIASECKI-ALTHAUS FUNERAL HOME, is (262) 658-4101 if you have any questions.