Back when VW Kombi's were a new thing and your hair was probably bigger than your knee-high ABBA boots! 
This is the very first advert for Magic Fingers! It was featured in the 'Star Weekender' in Auckland, Saturday, October 6, 1979. Look closely - NZ phone numbers back then only had 6 digits!
Super stoked to be the second generation of Magic Fingers Graphics - although now, we're not advertising for staff.
My Dad, Brian started Magic Fingers Graphics in the early 70's, and then later had a friend working with him, in an Auckland studio. The logo you see featured in this newspaper ad is the same logo in use today! I get the odd comment, "a cool retro vibe".
Nevertheless - it was written by hand, with calligraphy pens. The business cards were black with a shiny foiled 'kermit' green logo. Foil printed- with a bit of a comeback in recent years, I don't even have to change anything! (I did revise the brand to include navy, olive and terracotta tones).
I grew up with "Magic Fingers Graphics" always in the background of home life - countless weekends watching my dad screen print all sorts of things, make logos by hand and on the (large) 90's desktop computer, brochures & posters (not on a computer!). I'd tag along and help him install vinyl signs on buses, tractors and trucks. He had (read: still does have) shelves stacked high of all types of paper, boxes of the most amazing pens, markers and brushes. I was literally a kid in a (design) candy store.
My dad had to learn how to use this new thing called a computer while I was at primary school. I would sit for hours, on a chair behind him, fascinated by the tiny squares of colour at the bottom of the screen, in awe that some clicks of a mouse could 'draw' something on the computer screen, and amazed by the printer. I got my fair share of time allowed - 15 minutes to find the 'coolest' clip art off a CD and save my favourites onto a floppy drive. Or- if I was lucky, I could print one page out in colour!
Over the years, I naturally swayed towards things creative at high school, finishing my final year off doing Art ... Printmaking, Photography, Design, Art History and only because it was compulsory - English! If I had my choice it would have been the Painting class ;) This soon led me to achieving highest art award at school, as well as a couple of scholarships, to later complete a Bachelor of Computer Graphic Design at Waikato University, and then 10 years later....
I got my first client at a young 17 years old, and about as many years later, still retain them.
My turn with the reigns!
As my dad decided to retire and wind down the business, he left it 'ticking away' in the background. The timing was right and I picked it up- no clients but with a new focus - Website design and good old fashioned brand design. So here we are today - Magic Fingers Graphics version 2.0 - some 40-odd years later and hopefully another 40 years to come!
