Throughout Boating New Zealand’s evolution over the decades, one stalwart has witnessed much of the change – our graphics guru Mike Embleton who this year celebrates 30 years with the magazine.
Mike – who describes himself as an ‘oldcodger-not-yet-trawling-through-TradeMe- for-Zimmer-frames’ – works from his Kinloch home and is responsible for the final preparation of the magazine’s pages before they’re sent to the Auckland printers. It’s a monthly ritual, he says, that keeps life interesting, even if a little hectic.
Yes, he acknowledges, the technology that makes this all happen so seamlessly is completely unlike anything he could have imagined when he started his graphics training in the UK – many, many years ago. Bizarrely, despite the odds, the sea and boating didn’t feature even remotely on his horizon.
His education was entirely at boarding schools – largely a function of his father’s nomadic career (a Royal Navy chaplain posted to nurture souls in distant parts of the Empire). For Mike, that’s where the notion of a career at sea began and ended.
“In fact,” he says, “my only claim to ‘marine’ fame was (as a small child) getting lost in the bowels of the mighty WW2 battleship HMS Vanguard after Sunday services. I guess it’s a little ironic that I’ve spent so much of my working life in a marine-related industry.”
Like most teenagers approaching the end of high school, he didn’t have any idea of what wanted to do. A teacher suggested fine art. “It was a risky choice – in those days public school boys definitely didn’t go to art college – but I loved it.”
The Plymouth Art College curriculum covered the entire spectrum – painting, sculpture, photography, screen printing – Mike opted to major in graphics and typography. His first job (at a Plymouth design agency) involved making sure all the jars of water and brushes were clean each day. But he quickly progressed up the ladder.
As a ‘finished artist’ his job was to make the graphic ‘work’. “A designer might come up with wonderful ideas for an advert or label or poster, but in many cases these creations weren’t necessarily practical for printing. My job was to manipulate the design – turn it into something a printer could reproduce.”
After a few years, unable to resist the allure of the ‘big smoke’ he joined an American company in London’s Marble Arch – doing the finished art for catalogues and promotional material.
“London in the early 70s was wild. I had a wonderful time discovering the city’s psychedelic pleasures. And as Fate would have it, that’s where I met my future wife (Penny). A Kiwi on her OE, I was smitten. And when her visa expired autumn 1976 I started saving and followed her out in ‘77.
“In those days the ‘jet-cruise’ was the favoured mode of transport. You flew to Hong Kong, boarded a ship to Sydney and then caught a plane to Auckland. Long and arduous, but worth it. We got married a few months later.”
Work in Auckland included a year at a Parnell design agency, and then a decade at a Northcote company – doing packaging and point of sale material. He switched to freelancing, working in a converted garage/studio which coincided rather well with the life-changing arrival of children (1982 and 1985).
“The other life-changer was the arrival of the computer (1989/90) – it turned the design/graphics world upside down. The industry immediately filled with young guns who weren’t interested in the traditional tools of the trade. Fortunately for me, there were still a few agencies who preferred doing things the old-fashioned way. I’m sure I was one of the last dinosaurs.”
His first exposure to computing was when he joined Boating New Zealand as a freelancer in 1993. It was on a very early Apple LC475 – with a monochrome screen.
“Prior to the Apple we’d been doing page lay-ups using a wax gun and scalpel – a horrible, messy process where each page was stuck on individual boards. The magazine was printed in monochrome on newsprint paper, but things changed quickly. Soon we were scanning images, and then switched to colour printing. I joined the magazine full time in 1997 – and somehow survived all the subsequent ownership changes.”
Given his training, how difficult was the switch to the digital era? “I think it’s all about the ability and willingness to adapt. The technology was advancing all the time, so I had to as well. It was a parallel progression – and I embraced it. If you don’t adapt, you’re left on the shelf gathering dust – and I’m allergic to dust.
“I should also say I’ve always enjoyed Boating New Zealand – good people, good clients and interesting work – it’s a fun environment. It’s been very easy to ignore the passing of the retirement threshold.”
When he’s not wrestling magazine pages into submission, chances are you’ll find Mike in his garden, tramping, reading, or looking after a few of the grandchildren.
Happy 30th Mr Embleton – well done and thank you! BNZ
