My father, R. D. Ortiz was a sign painter in Dallas, Texas. I would often assist him on jobs as he painted various signs, murals and occasional gold leaf window. It never ceased to amaze me how he could paint a seemingly perfect circle with one stroke of a brush. This is where my appreciation for typography was born and probably led to me ultimately choosing graphic design as a career.

For a short time in the 60’s he created on-air graphics for KIII Channel 3, Television Station in Corpus Christi, Texas. On-air graphics were very different back then. Creatives would make 3-4 Tel-Ops (Television Opaques) each day, sometimes up to seven. Tel-Ops were basically hand painted graphics on Crescent board that were made into slides if time permitted, otherwise they were rushed in front a camera and put on air live.

Here’s a small collection of his work. There’s plenty more where these came from, someday I’ll get around to scanning them to post online.

Probably what it was meant to look like on-air