David Classic Design has been the DBA for my freelance creative efforts since 2012. Previously I used the name Communication Design. That year, my two in-house gigs petered out, so I worked up new corporate ID and a truly absurd website design.
My logo unabashedly proclaims my traditional fine art interest.
The gallery below is what I consider my most successful work in print media, not measured by marketing results but simply my idea of what is good. There’s not much, because most of my time went into painting and art fairs from 2012 to 2018.
When it became clear I could not afford the art fairs, I took a part-time job with Kolossos Printing Inc., making fine-art prints for other artists, learning a bit in the process. I also began teaching fencing for the Ann Arbor Y. Between the two I'm working nearly full-time.
I’ve included one non-freelance item, the Ames Hardness Tester brochure. Since 1994 I had worked on and off in-house for Electro Arc Manufacturing, a machine tool manufacturer. This brochure is the one piece I did for them I'm proud of.
I still offer freelance design and editing services. 

In the nineties, budgets were compressed but computers extended everyone’s reach. More people tried “doing it all” but few could bring the breadth of education and experience I had. 
Larry moved to California and sold TI Group to Russ Valvo, whose name became ours. Its only agency account win was Thetford Corporation, but it didn’t last. Nor did “R.J. Valvo.”
Bob Conlin responded by starting his own company, R.J. Conlin, which I believe is still in business.
Thetford, following the in-house trend, hired one of my former staff, and then me, to handle its substantial marketing and advertising projects. I worked freelance for them until 2000, then in-house until 2013. The gallery below reflects the most fun work I did for them.
As with the agency, these brochures were my concept, design and photo direction. I also illustrated the Norcold brochure in oils.
The last item everyone agreed was pretty special. They handed me a disk of American scene stock photos and an assignment: create an 8-foot panorama of America with only these photos and one by J.P. DiMaggio (Hoover Dam). It was fun: 80 layers in two Photoshop files.

In 1978 I became a “keyliner” with Typographic Insight, a type house founded by Art Dils and Larry Bell to sweep the Ann Arbor market. Now and then Larry, who could open the doors of clients like GM, would bring design or illustration work to me.
By mid-1979 Larry saw the handwriting on the wall that said typesetting was done. He started TI Group as an art house with me as his staff. In those days you were supposed to specialize: just illustration, sir, photography or design. But I was not only multitalented but crosstrained. Often, I not only designed and wrote complete brochures or campaigns for major automotive clients but also did the illustrations and 4 x 5 photography with the old Graflex I got in a print-shop deal. 
In the late eighties, computers made their appearance with the tiny Apple machines. On them we learned PageMaker –PhotoShop required bigger machines than we had. Their capabilities and adjunct technologies eliminated not only typesetting but many other tasks in print production. That made the “in-house ad agency” possible for big corporations, replacing many firms like ours. It was fun while it lasted.
Below, a few of my favorite projects. For more details on the photos and illustrations, click the buttons.