Mr. Peterson began his career in publishing and printing in 1971 while in school at Berkeley. He employed himself, while in school, as a pressman’s helper, typesetter, bindery operator and page makeup man for text book production. Those skills led to full time work at Typothatae, Inc., a major typesetting facility, where he further developed his skills at design, composition and production management. Major national publishing houses from Addison Wesley to Ziff Davis Publishing brought college and high school textbooks to Mr. Peterson and his staff for composition and production services.

In 1974 Mr. Peterson opened his first studio in the Palo Alto, California area. The studio a pioneer in “full service design and production” for bookwork, journals, and magazines, the staple corporate and advertising work of any design studio. and the particular needs and intricacies of scholastic publishing. At Stanford University the office designed and produced the Law School and Business School alumni magazines and produced the Stanford Alumni’s 4/C pictorial masterpiece on the history and future of Stanford University in association with James Stockton Associates. Experience with extensive art programs and multiple grade level text books came with Ginn’s Science program while in collaboration with one of the world’s foremost book designers, Bruce Kortebein. He continued the relationship with Addison Wesley on their Medical publications, developed ties with Benjamin Cummings on chemistry and science book projects, managed children’s math and reading projects for the Dale Seymour group, and worked extensively with Wadsworth Publications on book work as well as on advertising and direct mail pieces. The first “designed” textbook on computer programming was developed by his studio for Mayfield Publishing. The two volumes on Computer programming became best sellers, and set a new standard for design and production of similar works.

During the early eighties his talents turned to the new computer design stations being developed around the multi-media industry. Assuming the role of production manager for Dolphin Multi-media, a large slide and video house in Palo Alto, he quickly became known for his computer skill and artistry. He won several national awards for presentation at National Semiconductor and was an integral part of the success of the early sales meeting presentations for Apple Computer. He continued to win International and Local awards in this field for the following years. By moving to Florida, he worked more closely with Harcourt, Tupperware, Inc. and the Walt Disney Company as well as Florida Hospital, The United Way and AAA. His designs again won International recognition and one year received Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards in the Multi-media National Competition and Best of show the following year in the Genigraphics International.

With the advent of the desktop environment Mr. Peterson once again found himself at the edge of technology by opening a consulting business for the installation of desktop publishing systems. Originally planned as a design studio he found the additional need for technical expertise in computer systems design and maintenance. He developed networked, reliable, high efficiency pre-press systems for newspapers, publishers and advertising agencies in the Orlando area. He continued to manage fine art and textbook design as well. As digital photography entered the arena Mr. Peterson was once again involved in the first working installation in the nation of a digital photography workflow for Eckerd drugstores. The focus of this discipline was to streamline advertising management and the integration of digital photography and image database management into automated page building and in-store signage.

The accumulated knowledge in these areas led the office to move to St. Louis for two years to assist in the establishment of a digital workflow, data asset and full service Composition and Book Production  department for Accu-Color, Inc., a large film services company in St. Louis. The new division began workflow interaction with Mosby/Time-Warner Publications and Simon Schuster and showed profit and remarkable growth in the first year. The second year saw increased sales with the addition of significant work from Prentice Hall and Harcourt, Inc. The group made significant strides in the development of automated page building skills and O.P.I. imaging solutions. Automated postscript and image tracking were also developed in conjunction with full form imposition. At the commencement of my two year commitment to the project Lawrence took a year's sabbatical from the industry and circumnavigated the globe.

On the return to Orlando, Typographics (a long established textbook production and commercial service bureau facility) hired Mr. Peterson, as VP. Production — in charge of the entire facility. The facility at the time employed 45 people and was struggling to remain a viable part of the Publishing industry. In addition to new equipment and the establishment of a refined server network, a new network and a database, Mr. Peterson oversaw the acquisition and vendor contract negotiation of improved business systems. The implementation of more “structured” employee review processes and flow chart for departments, supervisors and a report scheme, to monitor and improve departments significantly improved day to day operations. Initiation of significant inter-departmental training resulted in marked improvement of work processes and measurable reduction in “bounced” work. Because of the rapidity of software development and the newness of the staff he established formalized in-house training in the graphics applications. File management techniques were established and enforced. A significant 2nd shift was developed. The Customer Service department saw implementation of a Excel based page and art management process. Prior to Peterson’s management little work was shared between the facilities. Procedures were established to allow work and process improvement sharing between the various plants under the Chicago headquarters. The result was significant revenue enhancement and improved customer relations changing an almost failed Design Composition house back into a thriving business participating in the modern publishing industry. When the company was purchased by Newsweek, Lawrence decided to return to developing his own design studio.

The Nevda office is accustomed to design and management of projects in both local, national and international markets. Although the studio’s early primary focus was in print media the studio has years of experience in Computer Graphics and multi-media and the Web and Internet. The industry changes over the course of those years have constantly expanded our business expertise. We are versed in the C Programming, HTML, Java, UNIX, and related Programming Languages. If we don’t speak the language we know somebody who does! The in-depth experience, in personnel and project management, is the strength of the studio. The historical information presented herein reflects this experience. Our office looks forward to working with you.

Mr. Peterson’s: Professional VITA click here.

Mr. Peterson’s: Related Biographical Sketch.

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