I am so shocked and saddened right now to hear of the death of one of my creative hero's. I was the Associate Creative Director or one of the greatest creative houses ever from 1983 to 1988 called Muller+Company John Mullerand Kathy Muller ran the Agency and while there had a baby John Stewart Muller. Deb Tagtalianidis and I were the first two employees.
There are no words for me to express what happened to my mind in the 5 years I was with John. There are three words that scratch the surface and they are RAMPANT UNBRIDLED CREATIVITY! John knew no limits, we dominated the creative shows, we did not do normal, we pushed limits, lived way outside of expected or normal creative boundaries and god we had fun!!!!!!
John gave me the courage to leave Kansas City and to pursue my creative dreams in California. I left in 1988 and in 1989 established Sackett Design Associates in San Francisco, California. Today we are known as Reflecturthere is no doubt in my mind, that had I not worked for John and Kathy that none of that would exist now.
I could spend days recounting our all night adventures, press checks, reliving the floors and walls covered in sketches, all night press checks, hooking up the very first apple computer, cleaning radiographs, creating, creating, creating. The amazing office he gave me and the inspiration I was blessed to surround myself with.
Anyone who works in the creative arts knows that our 80-100 hour weeks, regular all nighters, burgers at Town Topic at 3am were normal, fun, exciting and never once WORK!
We were building something, we were creating and making art, design, advertising and ideas! We inspired each other, inspired our team, and we made some fucking cool work that won thousands of awards, and that's just in the time I was there.
Anyone who has heard me speak at conferences knows exactly how I feel about John Muller.
There have been a handful of influential creative forces in my life, John was most certainly at the top of that list!
As I sit here in a surgical waiting room of the KU Medical Center Heart Ward in Kansas City, and as my Father is undergoing a massive heart bypass as write this, I am reminded of how frail we all are, how short our time is here. I know deep in my own fragile heart, that the world lost yet another Creative Hero yesterday!
I am saddened, crushed right now and as I think about it, I can hear John saying, "Let's make it cool!" And we did...god we did!
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