About Kollath Graphic Design
Kollath Graphic Design is a small illustration and graphic design business located in Duluth, Minnesota. Working in a small market means we've been able to work on every kind and size of project imaginable, although direct-mail catalogs have been our mainstay since the early 90s.
That's the nutshell, here's the encyclopedia:
About Rick Kollath
I started illustrating in nursery school. Paper and a pencil kept me quiet — an interesting bit of news the teacher passed on to my mom. Mom brought home rolls of butcher paper and stuck a suction-cup pencil sharpener to our piano bench: my first desk.
At 29, after studying philosophy and earning a German-teaching degree, I accidentally became an illustrator and graphic designer for a high-tech, synthetic motorcycle clothing start-up called Aerostich Riderwear. Founder Andy Goldfine parlayed his own riding experience into a thriving mail and Web-direct business that maintains a cult-like following among serious long-range-touring riders.
After five years, and itching to be my own boss, I started Kollath Graphic Design. Andy became one of my first clients. I worked for Aerostich until it grew enough to need an internal art and advertising department.
Early in Kollath Graphic Design’s existence, I began working with Bob Fierek, his brother, and another partner, who had started a tool-organization outfit named Portable Products. If you’ve ever heard of a Bucket Boss — think of a piece of fabric, fitted over a five gallon bucket and covered with pockets to create a brilliant tool carrier that probably exists in some form at every job site in the U.S. right now — Bob is the reason, because he forced it into existence. In love with the mail order business, Bob spun off a quirky catalog that became Duluth Trading Company. I’ve illustrated that catalog since its inception. For 10 years I also designed (and sometimes edited) it. I stayed on as a contract designer and illustrator after the original partners sold it to Fiskars in 1998, and then again after Fiskars sold Duluth Trading Co. to Steve Schlecht in 2001. Steve has grown a great business specializing in clothing for trade professionals and DIYers.
These days I do very little Duluth Trading Co. catalog design, but I still get to work with a wonderful team of writers, designers, and other illustrators. The guts of the book are created near Madison, WI, by my boss (a remarkably creative and talented fellow named Al Shakelford who I promised I’d mention) and his equally talented team, who let me illustrate the occasional product, and paint and design the covers.
Around 1998, a few years into this illustrious (get it?) career, I re-connected with writer Sparky Stensaas, whose first book I’d illustrated. He was thinking of self-publishing a guide to rock picking along Lake Superior’s North Shore — a Midwest tourism destination with a dramatic geological history that created literally tons of interesting rock-hunting opportunities — and he was wondering how much I’d charge to illustrate and design it. I told him I was interested, but he couldn’t possibly afford me, so we should become partners. Kollath+Stensaas Publishing has now sold more than 55,000 copies of the Rock Picker’s Guide to Lake Superior’s North Shore. We’ve since put out another 12 field guides; most are photograph-driven; some are illustrated. (View a full list of Kollath+Stensaas guides.)
Finally some random-yet-definitive personal history: I hitchhiked across most of the United States in the 1970s. I once rode a freight train halfway across Montana. I’ve been a rock-climber and mountaineer since 1975, and I was once struck by lightning in Canada’s Bugaboo Mountains (I survived). I’ve taught English in Austria and bummed through the British Isles, Northern Europe, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, and other parts of Europe as a student and a climbing bum. I’ve kayaked from Grand Portage, MN, out to, around, and back from Isle Royale—a 110-mile trip that includes a serious (13-mile) open crossing on deep, cold water—twice (I survived both times). I’ve paddled in 20-foot Lake Superior waves. I’m a middling cross-country skier, a crappy Telemark skier, and an abysmal ice-skater. My office is only a few miles from home, so I get to bike commute year-round, which is both exciting and a real pain in the winter (though I do survive). I live with my sweetie, Jane, a Web designer and coder, in a lovely and modest Arts & Crafts bungalow that has great views of Lake Superior, the best lake in the whole damn world.
It's a good life.
You actually read all that? Don't you have work to do?