By the end of the 1980s, Macintosh-based DTP systems were firmly established in typesetting and design houses, but were still no match for the powerful video-graphic paintboxes used in the television industry. To sit at a graphic tablet and draw in real-time with a pressure sensitive pen was magical for an artist. Menu's were brought on-screen with a sweeping gesture of the pen providing access to anti-aliased type, stencils, brushes and a whole range of image-transformation tools.

Though few existed outside London, one of these rare and expensive beasts belonged to Martin Allen's Nottingham-based company, M&M Design. Martin, along with designer Andy Frith operated the 'Three X Four' production facility from premises in Giltbrook, near Eastwood. The enterprise benefitted from synergy with other companies in the same complex, including; Chrysalis TV and Black Box Studios.

Andy was eventually headhunted by BBC and I was subsequently ushered in to assist paintbox operator Mark Whitten. The paintbox at 'Three X Four' was made by Spaceward Systems who effectively cloned the Quantel System. The dedicated hardware was linked to a PC host, a camera rostrum, A3 colour desktop scanner and a couple of Betacam SP video recorders capable of frame-by-frame editing (rotoscoping).

Much of Three X Four's work involved creating title sequences and animation for corporate video. The facility handled overspill from the BBC Open University, independent production companies including Jonathan Ross's Channel-X, Humphrey Barclay productions and some creative work with set-designer Huw Feather.

M&M's graphic design studio were also experimenting with desktop colour, outputting commercial colour separations with a new Adobe program called Photoshop at a time when traditional repro-houses said it couldn't be done! Although very, very slow, I was conscious that Photoshop utilised stencil-masking like Quantel's Paintbox. Spaceward.

In January 1990 I was asked to project-manage a nationwide roadshow for Leicester-based British Shoe Corporation on behalf of London Creative Agency Abbott Mead Vickers. Hardware consisted of a Barco video projector, multiple 35mm slide back-projection units, lights and a quality PA and mixer. The project involved several domestic flights - including one notable trip one February morning when Martin and I almost crashed in a howling gale as our twin-prop light-aircraft approached Edinburgh airport.

When Chysalis TV moved out of Giltbrook, video-graphic work started to dry up and the Matisse paintbox was re-positioned as a 3D visualisation tool. Spaceward were also developing a 3D modelling software package called Rodin which looked set to differentiate its product from the Quantel system, but it all came too late and Quantel successfully sued the company for stealing ther intellectual property. It was a tough time for design and print too and many agencies fell by the wayside as advertising budgets were cut and creditors went to the wall. 'Three X Four's parent company also suffered the effects of the downturn and finally went into receivership at the end of the year.