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GRAND RAPIDS - Rick Devon set out to be an illustrator but "accidentally became an ad agency" called Grey Matter Group.
As Devon recalls, his career in advertising got off to a dubious start. Shortly after graduating from Kendall College of Art and Design, he was offered a job as a production artist at Jaqua Advertising, where he was "squirreled away in a tiny cubicle and forced to do mind-numbingly detailed line drawings of industrial pumps." He went on to work as a junior art director for Murdoch Advertising and, later, as art director for Berkel Advertising.
"As I moved Lip the ranks, I started understanding what the craft of advertising was about," Devon recalled. "It's a very conceptual medium to work in if you you're re with the right agency. I enjoyed that a lot - just that idea of trying to come up with a creative solution to a problem."
During the five years Devon spent with the ad agencies, he worked on the advertising accounts of customers in the publishing, food service and health care sectors - accounts he said won him "buckets-full of client praise," as well as a few awards suitable for framing.
In 1991, Devon struck out on his own as "a freelance idea guy." His plan was to freelance until the right offer came along from an ad agency. Within 30 days of becoming selfemployed, he was making too much money to collect unemployment, so he took out a loan, bought some office equipment and set up shop at...