What Was Your First Creative Gig?
The current mascot, Henry the Hornet, was a classic 1950’s bumble bee character with skinny legs, skinny arms, and boxing gloves. Not too inspirational. I decided to give Henry a few steroids and a new shape and- viola! It was done. I consulted my uncle’s bodybuilding magazines for inspiration as well as a few old comics of my dad’s I had laying around. The new mascot was a ripped, hulking man/hornet, with giant biceps and a tornado abdomen. The school loved it and I was asked to then paint it on the walls and to help them turn the design into tee shirts and other paraphernalia to sell at the concession stand during football games. I never played football, in case you couldn’t guess.
For my creative energy, I was paid nothing, but after much hullabaloo, was allowed to sign my name to the wall. This was not my first creative gig but it was my last non-paying creative gig. The positive outcome for me was the learning experience, and the fact that it was the first time in the state’s history that a student branded a school by designing a new mascot. I wish I could say the chicks dug me after that, but…not so much.
