If you're working with Hollywood, Sparks businessman Kelly Smith has one word of advice: Bid high to cover the inevitable aggravation.
The handiwork of Smith, a pioneering expert in the design and printing of really big displays, will be in the spotlight during a summer tour by singer Clay Aiken.
Aiken, the 2003 American Idol runner-up, will be performing in front of a series of backdrops each 25 feet high and 40 feet wide designed by Smith.
The singer, Smith said a few days ago, loves the backdrop designs that represent musical eras from the 1950s through the 1990s.
But getting to the singer's approval, Smith said with a sigh, was a drawn-out process of working with Aiken's advisors.
"They had a million changes," he said.
"I'm glad I bid high."
The aggravation is nothing new for Smith, whose work also has helped create a mood for singers such as Ashlee Simpson and Nora Jones.
And his work it's known as "grand format" in the design and printing industry has been a key element in trade show displays and advertising media for companies ranging from General Motors to Apple and Macy's.
Smith, the son of a veteran Nevada sign painter and a trained graphic artist, was one of the first to learn to print ever-larger formats as computer technology evolved in the 1990s.
"Nothing worked," he said in recalling those early days."I didn't know anything.
It was crazy."
The lessons weren't all digital.
The sheer size of the medium banners several stories high, for instance presented mechanical challenges as well.
"I've never had one fall down," Smith says with some pride.
He learned enough, in fact, that his services are more highly in demand these days as a consultant than a designer a transition that suits him just fine.
From a Web site (grandformatbible.com), Smith sells copies of an e-book about grand format printing and design and lines up consulting jobs at $1,500 a day plus travel and expenses.
The flexibility that consulting provides is important, Smith says, as he pursues his true career interest these days a network marketing program through USANA Health Sciences, a Salt Lake City maker of nutritional and personal care products.
"Consulting now is almost like a hobby for me," he said.
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