Gary W. Priester

I first became interested, no make that obsessed, with Stereograms, in the mid 90s when I saw an article on how to create stereograms in Publish Magazine. I contacted the author and said I would pay him to teach me how to create the hidden 3D images. It was money well spent.

Creating hidden image Stereograms started as a hobby. I created a Website with a few dozen of my images. I didn’t expect anything to come of it. Then about 15 years ago, I was contacted by a Japanese publisher, Takarajimasha Inc., in Tokyo who wanted to license some of my images for a magazine they were launching. I was skeptical but all these years later it has become a regular gig for me and I provide about 60 images a year for what has grown to a largish group of publications that they call TJ MOOK (Magazine-bOOK). I started providing images for issue #2. The MOOKS are now up to issue #18 and the series has sold over four million copies. Unlike most artists who create the depth images for their Stereograms using 3D software, I draw nearly all my depth images from scratch in Xara Designer Pro, a vector drawing program. This takes a lot longer to do but gives me more control over the hidden images.

I have also created a fair amount of commercial images for a variety of companies. One of the more interesting assignments was for a Japanese chef who was opening an Italian Restaurant in Tokyo. They printed a Stereogram containing the master chef’s logo ASO in the center of the dinner plates. It amuses me to think of a dining room full of diners staring down at their empty plates trying to see the 3D image hidden on their plate (seeing the logo through a pile of pasta would be considerably more difficult). I have licensed my images to several international companies for a variety of uses. When I am not creating Stereogram images, I do Website and logo design and a small amount of advertising. You can visit my Website www.gwpriester.com to see examples of my design work.

I spent 15 years after graduating from Art Center College of Design in California working as a TV and print art director in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In 1986, my wife and I started a graphic design company, The Black Point Group, which accounted for another 12 years until Mary left the company to go back to her first love, painting. We had a great group of clients for whom we collected over 50 design awards of excellence, including Singer Printing, Charles Schwab, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, Ernst & Young, Chateau St. Jean Vineyards and Winery, Deloitte & Touche, and graphic design assignments for Goldberg Moser O’Neil, and Young & Rubicam