With Blue Sky Phil settled in marketing services,
producing several brochures each year along with
a mass of sales support literature, audiovisual and
conference materials.

Phil recalls, “It’s hard now to imagine, but that
back then PCs weren’t invented let alone email,
we barely had fax machines, all layouts were
hand traced and artwork was cut and paste.
The schedules were grueling with all of us
working very long days, but we always
managed to hit the deadlines somehow.

It was in this caldron of activity Phil met and
worked with then ski-photographer Bill Holden
and art director John Goodinson.

“I still hold firm to the principles I learned
back then, and top of the list will always
be – for any job, write a specification that
all parties understand and agree, produce
a coherent production schedule, and last,
but not least, agree a sensible budget, with
a built-in contingency reserve, for as much
as we try, nothing ever goes exactly to plan.

Phil concluded: “Those pre-technology days
were tough, yet memorable, not least because
of the incredible team work required to get the
job done. "On any one brochure there would be
a phalanx of designers, art workers, typesetters,
repro guys, printers and finishers – all working
for separate companies, but needing to be
harnessed to produce the jobs on time and
on budget.”

“Now we have ultra fast technology systems,
involving far less people providing near
instantaneous solutions.”

Phil went on to become account director and
head of client services for a London based
design to print group of companies, with
responsibility for a portfolio of clients from
the financial, leisure, office supplies and
public sector.

Phil is primarily a
project manager.
He started in the
travel business
working for leading
London tour
operators in various
roles and then
to BCal’s subsidiary
Blue Sky Holidays.