When I was a kid, I had this crappy play table, with a light blue, leatherette top and animal decals on the side. I spent hours drawing at that table, going through reams of cheap newsprint. Even on a sunny day, I’d be at that table. My mom was (mostly) good enough not to toss me outside with the old refrain “Get outside and get some fresh air!”.

I never connected drawing to an actual career. It was something I did for fun. Growing up, it was suggested I become an architect. Listening to this year after year, I just accepted it. Then I found out you actually had to know math, and physics, and all that stuff. Then it wasn’t so fun anymore. I sucked at those things. It was in my later high school years that I discovered this thing called “Commercial Art”.

I did train to be an illustrator, but the truth is, I wasn’t as good as I would have liked. There was a big demand for paste-up work, at the time. As the Mac was only introduced the year I graduated (1985), all the work we did was by hand. There were no digital cameras, no layout or photo editing apps, and of course no digital typefaces. Assembly work meant you had to take all the component bits—sheets of typeset copy, black and white line art and photos, then cut and paste everything together on a board. Old school.

Long story short–I spent 32 years as a Graphic Designer, not an illustrator. In the background, my style was developing, like a stew. One day, my partner pointed out a print of a funky, retro robot at IKEA. “You know, you could do something like that”, she said. So the bug had been put into my head. I believe your best work comes from your authentic self—drawing (pun intended) on your beliefs and experiences.

My work now calls upon my decades of experience with design, sketching and typography, but in a new way.

BTW–My last name is pronounced “Pry-Sing”. It’s ok if you got it wrong. Most everyone does. It’s that “i” before “e” thing.