When I worked for the major hotel chain as art director, my usual duties included physically laying out newspaper ads for the hotel’s five properties: a nightclub, a dinner theater, convention center, other hotel and various restaurants; doing large sets for conventions and visiting celebrities, and other print jobs.
One day, someone from the Presidential Advance Team came to our general manager with a request. I got the deadline of a lifetime: to make a hand-painted 20 foot by 8 foot banner overnight for the President of the United States and his speech at a local high school.
It was about 1pm when the GM asked if I could do it. I didn’t have to do it if I didn’t think I could, but if I said I could do it, I had to. And it had to be done and hung by 9:00 the next morning.
My immediate boss was out sick, and the only other coworker was the girl who handled media. She asked if I needed anything before she left that day. She would write a press release on the whole thing. I was excited about surprising my boss. Later, I would learn surprise may not have been a good path to take that day.
The hotel gave me some petty cash, I left work, purchased muslin fabric and grommets after putting my mom and her sewing machine on alert, and raced home for her to sew the banner together. I’m still not sure why I didn’t just get a prepared, grommeted blank banner, but I think the notice was too short. This was going on-air to every news outlet in the world in mere hours and I couldn’t take the time to travel any distance for anything.
I also needed help. I called my old airbrush ‘boss’ with whom I used to airbrush shirts for bands like Guns N Roses and Aerosmith. He lived in the city and needed a ride in. Again, I couldn’t take the time, so I politely thanked him and got to work in an empty ballroom, hanging the sewn fabric over the brocaded walls of the room.
It was about 5 p.m.
At the last minute, the Advance Team called me down to the hotel room they occupied as a command center. Inside were maps of the President’s route pinned to walls (I was assured that would change several times, and I had really seen nothing secret.), a couple of German shepherds in their police gear, and other men in suits hovering over papers and plans, who eyed me with caution and then returned to their work when their threat alarms didn’t go off.
“Are you sure you can get this done in time?” my contact asked me.
“Yes,” I answered with confidence, though his question shook me a little.
Why was he asking? Had I overestimated my abilities? Well, it was too late now.
“The Secret Service will be there for it at 6 a.m.”
6 a.m.? Two hours less than I’d thought? Ok. Now, my adrenaline was pumping faster. And he wanted to change the design a bit. We decided on books and a globe and something else for the education theme the President would be speaking about.
The sun was starting to set as left the room and went back to work.
I got a layer of white gesso over the whole 20 foot by 8-foot piece, not thinking of what it was doing to the walls behind it. While it dried, I got a dinner downstairs in one of the restaurants, my stomach nervous about getting it done. Of course, I would get it done by 6, but I would have to work through the night.
And I did.
As the minutes ticked by, some of the overnight hotel workers, housekeeping, security and others came to watch me paint.
Hours raced by—I felt—and someone brought up dinner around midnight. My eyes were sandy, I was sore and tired, but the design was taking shape.
A Secret Service agent stopped by before 6 to see the progress and if he could take it. I told him to come back in an hour when he was supposed to. My boss’s boss came in after that, telling me I could get a room for an hour to rest after I handed the banner off.
When the agent came back with a buddy, I told them it was still a little wet, but they made quick work of getting it down.
“We’ll be careful, ma’am,” he said with his Virginia accent.
There’s more to the story; my interview with a newspaper where they got a lot of the facts wrong; my boss’s icy reaction when my coworker informed her about the day’s events; the ire of Maintenance when they saw the paint I had left on the walls; and my coworker and I getting to go see the President’s speech.
I can’t say it was my best work, but it was the best I could do, was liked by my bosses, and made the hotel look good.
I’ve had other crazy deadlines in my life, but that one was the most dramatic, and took the most fervor to get it done. It also showed me that I could do a lot more than I thought I could, being a planner.
Sometimes it takes tight deadlines to make things happen, and sometimes you can do even better work than you thought you could!
