It's been forty years since Mark and I met at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 1976... first day, first class... typography with Helen Webster. It was a serious school and we were none-too-cool for it; Visual Communications majors with ridiculously large portfolios that didn't fit on a transit bus and never-ending homework. Mark got a job at KDKA straight away and my first gig was at The Pittsbu
rgh Press, but I set out for DC (where I was born) to find work. It was '79, the recession was in full bloom and freelance was the best way to pay the rent and stay busy. I moved from ad agency to magazine to newspaper, weekly or sometimes daily. As mind-rattling as it was, it was a learning cluster. Eventually, I took a design position that lasted a couple of years until the better way to pay the rent was freelance illustration. By '81, Mark was in DC working at Goldberg-Marcesano, a small but influential agency. As a staff illustrator, he cut his teeth on PBS work and started a career geared toward entertainment. By '82 we were married and living in the burbs, formed Eloqui [ el-oh!-kwi ] and began to feel the conservatism of our nation's capital... with respect to the home-grown work. The advent of the fax machine and FedEx made movement possible and permanent in '89. Two amazing kids later, we'd moved to Western Maryland and set up shop in our attic studio. Been there ever since. Many changes have taken place since we signed those articles of incorporation in '84. It's a lightning-fast digital world and with all the love, we do our best to preserve the things that drew us to this work and the things we still cherish about living the creative life. – Laura
