Over a year ago I moved into the current MBIP World Headquarters. You can read all about that by clicking here. I'm really happy with this place except for one thing, this:
That's an empty wall up by the door. All of the other walls are pretty much filled up with pictures, but I didn't have any more pictures to put up here when I moved in. So I started saving things that I wanted to frame and last week I took them to Technicraft and let my friend, Colleen Kimball, who's the Director of Business Development there, frame them. And of course I took pictures of everything for the blog, so keep on scrolling to see how I got framed...at Technicraft!
The Drop Off
Here we are at Technicraft in downtown Peoria. We’ll go in and ring the bell for service!
How’s that for fast service? It’s my friend, Colleen, who’s the Director of Business Development here. We were just getting ready to discuss the framing when all of a sudden...
De Ingles from Smiley Graphix stormed through the door! I said hello to De and she pushed me away and demanded that Colleen wait on her first. Hey, what are you going to do? She’s married to a Swiss Army Knife, so I guess if I was in her position, I’d be a little irritable too! While De and Colleen conduct business we’ll take a little look around in the front office here.
They do a multitude of graphic services here at Technicraft, click here to see some of them and click here for a tour I took a while back for the blog. in addition to businesses, they work with a lot of local artists and photographers and some of the work they’ve printed, mounted and framed are on display here in the front office. Very impressive work, it’s like an art gallery in here!
As quickly as De stormed in, she stormed back out the door and now it’s time to do our framing business. Here’s Colleen with her dad, Tom, who’s the owner of Technicraft. I’ve known Tom since he was a wee lad and I’m friends with his sister Kay and her husband Tim. I guess that’s reason enough to cue this up!
Here’s the pictures and art I brought in to be framed and clear up that nasty empty wall problem in MBIP World Headquarters. Colleen wrote up the order and now all we have to do is wait for them to be done!
An Interlude While We Wait For Them To Be Done
I thought I'd write a brief history of Technicraft and feature some vintage pictures that Colleen gave to me. Here's the history, very briefly, because I know that no one is here for a history lesson, but this is a local business, so here we go!
Technicraft was founded in 1969 by Ted Kerrn. The photos here are from the location on Lake Street across from Sheridan Village. After a decade in business, Tom Whalen started working at Technicraft and he quickly moved up the ladder and he ended up owning the place and being the President of the business. And he did it the old fashioned way—he married the boss’s daughter, Karen!
Seriously, Tom worked his way up and since purchasing and taking over the business in 2004, he’s grown it into Peoria’s finest multi-faceted Graphics Arts Company and you can read more about Tom, Colleen and Technicraft by clicking here.
This is a video of Colleen explaining the business today. Okay, history lesson’s over, let’s go pick up our framed pictures!
The Pick Up
Okay, it’s less than a week later and we’re back at Technicraft! There’s Colleen and I love that Technicraft t-shirt she has on! Let’s follow her back into the production area and see the final framed results!
Wow, they did an amazing job! I told Colleen to do whatever she wanted and she did fantastic work on these! I gave her the dimensions of the wall and a photo and she even laid them out the way that they should be hung on the wall! That’s her and Paul packing everything up...actually, Colleen’s doing all the work and Paul is just watching. I can do that, maybe I should apply for a job at Technicraft! After it was all packed up, Colleen gave me my very own Technicraft t-shirt! I love this place!
The Installation At MBIP World Headquarters
Here’s all the stuff back at MBIP World Headquarters. I unpacked everything and now it’s time to hang the photos. For some reason that last sentence made me think about the band Badfinger. Oh well, let’s get to work!
Following Colleen’s layout here’s the pictures being hung on the wall. I love filling up a blank wall and I can’t tell you how excited I was to do this. It’s looking so good and now...
The wall is covered and it looks better than I could have ever thought possible! Huge thanks to Colleen and Paul who put this all together, it’s better than I ever imagined! And now my OCD will finally settle down having all of my walls covered!
I hung this cover and first page from a story in Art & Society that Jonathan Wright wrote about myself and his dad in my bedroom, where I hang other press clippings. I don’t like to hang these in the front room because I don’t want to look like some sort of self-centered, egomaniac, so I hang them back here and look at them in private and tell myself how great I am!
Every Picture Tells A Story
All of these pictures have a nice memory attached to them and here they are, starting from the top.
O.J. Simpson: This was a present from my friends, Amber and Joe for my birthday this year. It’s a game board that came out when O.J. Simpson was on trial! I love this! Whoever the person was who said or thought: “Hey, let’s make a cartoon game out of this double murder trial!” I’d like to shake their hand! This is really a cool chunk of pop art history! And it was my favorite birthday present I got this year. It was almost as cool as Sgt. Squeak, but not quite! It's hard to beat that present!
Paul Revere And The Raiders: Amber’s parents, Diane and Chuck gave me this cool, vintage poster for a concert here in Peoria from 1966. Headlining the show was Paul Revere And The Raiders and three local bands were the opening acts. One of them was The Coachmen, featuring a young musician named Dan Fogelberg. Chuck’s brother Jon was also in the band and has a great website with wonderful stories of Dan, The Coachmen and other musical tales. This poster also means a lot because I saw Paul Revere And The Raiders on this same tour in Louisville, Kentucky when I was eight-years-old! It was my first concert!
Nearby Nite Life: Most of us remember this weekly paper, published and written by Nite Life Sam Mahoney. When I was in Chicago a couple of year’s ago, I visited with my friends, Brad and Chloe and Brad gave me this copy. There was always quite a few typos in NNL and this one had a doozy! In the first picture featuring Graham Walker and Stephanie Howard, on the upper left, the caption reads: “I’ve been eating her for years...” Ha ha ha! This is from 1979 and a couple years later, Brad, Graham and Rob Newhouse would change their last names to “Elvis” and The Elvis Brothers were born! Brad is currently drumming in The Handcuffs and The Romantics.
Joan Jett: MBIP commenter, raginrr sent me this book a couple of years ago. He didn’t know it, but I already had a copy! I really appreciated the gesture and have been using the photos from it for my collage in the MBIP Kitchen. I decided to get the cover from it framed. I love Joan Jett!
The Greg And Dan Show Blogging Certificate: Last Christmas, Greg and Dan, from The Greg and Dan Show, invited me to their on-air Christmas party and presented me with this certificate that states that I’m the official blogger of the show! I was honored, humbled and very pleased to receive this!
Wee Tee Score Card: This was the score card from the final MBIP Invitational Golf Tournament. Thanks to Amber, Joe, Chuck, Jon and Adam for being a part of that fun evening.
Gonn Flyer: This is a flyer for the 50th anniversary of Gonn that was held at The Limelight. You can read all about that and see pictures by clicking right here.
Cheap Trick Meet and Greet Pass and Guitar Picks: Speaking of The Limelight, Cheap Trick played there last year and I got to meet the band, which was a thrill because Cheap Trick is one of my all-time favorite bands! You can see the post by clicking here. Rick Nielson gave me a guitar pick and my friend Colleen Waller gave me one that she picked up at the show. Thanks, Colleen!
Art & Society Cover: This is a cover of the Art & Society magazine that I’m on and the first page of an article that Jonathan Wright wrote about myself and his dad. It’s really a great article and you can check that out here.
Palmistry: I got this at Relics Gift Shop and it always makes me think of this episode of Seinfeld!
Thanks again to Colleen at Technicraft for doing such a wonderful job with this! It’s my favorite wall in MBIP Headquarters now! And thanks to all of you who contributed art and photos for the wall! We’ll see you all tomorrow!
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419 Elm Street
Peoria
309-495-5245
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Related Posts: Takin' Care Of Business: A Tour Of Technicraft and The Erin Feis Pre-Party 2016.