You know what I'm talking about. Could you draw up a little something for ________ (insert flyer for Edwin's birthday, retirement or company party, to make fun of a co-worker's blunder, newsletter, school play, etc...). I usually didn't mind especially when a fellow officer was retiring. One day a San Jose detective asked me to come up with a design for their children's T-shirt logo for their upcoming hosted Fire/Police Olympics. It's a big event which usually has department's from all over the nation and countries like Canada, Great Britain and Germany participating on occasions. Of course there is the on-going competition betwee Fire and Police themselves. Police Officers can't figure out why Fire Fighters big day consists of shopping for dinner and which cable program to watch that night and Fire Fighters don't know why cops are always parked near a Starbucks or near an intersection watching stop signs.
I asked the detective ( who by the way was part of a drug task force) why she didn't use her department's artist. San Jose PD is big enough and where there is enough crime to fund a full time composite artist. All he does is draw suspects of crimes in his own little office. I and many other composite artists have his/her main assignment (patrol, traffic, detective). Only when a major crime or one that had a good eye witness did I used to be ask to schedule an appointment with a subject.
Back to San Jose. The detective explained the t-shirt was a fund raising item for hosting their olympics. Their artist was going to do it gratis but when he heard how many they were making, he asked for money up front and a dollar from each sold. He was a fairly new artist who had just replaced another composite artist who had retired as a sergeant with 30 years with San Jose. The committee was trying to make the items as low cost as possible and still make money to reimburse for expenses. After a few drafts and changes to make the police canine "less scary" this is what I came up with. I had asked my Chief ( with whom I was working directly for at that time) and was able to do on duty between investigations for no cost to their Police Union.
