Pick a random career out of a hat, and there is a good chance Mark Simon ’86 has worked it.
At 12 years old, Simon designed skateboards for Schwinn Bicycles. By 14, he was a crew supervisor for his father’s Houston-based custom home building company. The flyers and signs Simon created there sparked attention from other businesses, so in high school, he formed his own company, Nomis Creations (“It’s just Simon spelled backward. Highly creative, right?” he laughed) and started designing for other Houston businesses.
He’s a go-getter and, more than that, really doesn’t like the word no.
“I’ve always started at the top,” Simon said, standing in his Atlanta basement surrounded by shelves of books he’s written and posters of TV show storyboards he’s designed. “For the most part, it’s worked out well because I always go to the person who can say yes instead of the five people before him who could say no.”
Trying to tell Simon’s story is like attempting to catch the Tasmanian Devil midwhirl and force him to give up his secrets. He’s a machine, the Energizer bunny, or like a commercial where the car whips full-speed through the mountains, which is actually a type of commercial he’s designed.
To read the rest of the article, go to http://www.sfasu.edu/sawdust/issue-19-spring/feature-bringing-dead-to-life.html