Articles Index About 60-Seconds Contact Us Past Articles
Fred Showker is a veteran of the graphic design industry, and a long time computer pundant . He is the founder of the Design & Publishing Center and DT&G Magazine as well as Editor in Chief of the User Group Network News service. He was a former officer of the Apple User Group Advisory Board (UGAB), and thousands of computer users all over the world know him from his column, 60-Second Windows, syndicated in newsletters throughout the user group community for more than 170 monthly issues.
He has been an active user group evangelist since 1984, involved in many activities for Apple and the User Group Community. He was a presenter and participant in Apple's first User Group University in 1987, with the Apple User Group Connection (UGC), as well as Appleworld, eWorld, National Apple User Groups (NAUG), National Apple User Group Symposium & Workshops (NAUGSAW), and most recently in the rebirth of The User Group University (UGU).
As consultant and developer, he had a hand in the birth and growth of AppleLink PE (ALPE) and Quantum Computers, who eventually changed their name to America Online (AOL) where he was cofounder and Forum Leader for the first online User Group Forum (UGF). He served as editorial columnist for the Mac User Group News Service (MNS, MUG News) in the late '80s and early '90s, and served on the boards of both The Computer Users for Social Responsibility (CUSR) and The National Home & School Mac User Group (NHSMac). He was a founding Board member of The User Group Academy and The Association Of Apple Computer Users & Groups (AACUG). Today, he is co-editor and publisher of the "InfoManager" newsletter, which has been sent every Monday morning since 1990 to computer club newsletter editors and subscribers around the world. His own user group column is called "This Old Mouse".
Professionally, Showker has owned and operated Showker Graphic Arts & Design (Showker, Inc.) since 1972, where his advertising graphic arts production facility in Harrisonburg, Virgina has produced nearly 7,000 successful projects for more than 500 clients. To his credit are three National Dynamic Graphics Awards, numerous PIVA and Printing Industries of America awards, and the 1987 Package of the Year award for consumer packaged goods. He won the coveted Desktop Publisher of the Year Award for Aldus (Pagemaker), and was cited as among the top four desktop publishers for Mac Guide Magazine.
He began publishing DT&G ezine in 1990, and established The Design & Publishing Center on eWorld in 1994, which continues today on the world wide web. His DT&G Zine and The Design & Publishing Center have received more awards than should be published here, including C|Net's "Site of the Day", USA Today's "Hot Site", Publish Magazine's "Site to See", and the coveted APEX award for best electronic publication in 1998. David Pogue, in Macworld Magazine said "DT&G is a one man tour de force of advice, instruction and how-to's pertaining to all things graphic!" and "There are other ezines about design and art. But none approach the usefulness of this one."
He's been a speaker, and seminar presenter for Multicom Expos, In-House Graphics Magazine and Dynamic Graphics DGEF, teaching such topics as creative layout techniques, web design, presentations, multi-media design, brochure design, and typography "WOW" to employees of more than 500 organizations including Apple Computer, Microsoft, Phillips, Merck, Ford Motor Company, the State of Maryland, Chicago Newspapers, Wired Magazine, and numerous nonprofit organizations such as The United Way, National Library Association and the U.S. Armed Forces. His 1993-96 tour of "Newsletter Make-over Clinics" brought crituques and hands-on make-overs to hundreds of businesses such as Caterpillar, 3M, NRA, National Underwriters Labs, University of California, Maryland State, The United States Air Force and a myriad of ad agencies and DTP studios. As an adjunct faculty member of James Madison University (JMU, Harrisonburg, VA) he's taught Publication Design and currently Introduction to Electronic Graphics & Design.
Showker was a graduate of the Communication Arts & Design School of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU, Richmond, VA) and is active in local civic organizations and K-12 education including the Parent Teachers' Organization. His firm was active in the Harrisonburg Rockingham Chamber of Commerce, and the Shenandoah Valley Travel Association for more than 25 years.
Today, Fred puts a lot of time into supporting local organizations, and in 2006 he and his wife, Carol, launched The Appleseeds Foundation to continue that community work.
He was born on August 18th, 1950, and today resides in the backwoods of Virginia with wife Carol, and two dogs. He spends as much time as possible in Florida, discovering the keys, reefs and the Buffet life on his boat, the "Tight Squeeze" .
I originally started DT&G in 1987 as a method of responding to questions sent in by previous workshop attendees. Each time I would conduct a seminar, it would be followed by more questions from those attendees. I have no idea how many that was -- we were visiting as many as 22 cities a year with two seminars which would have at least 12 attendees, and in some cases like the Web Design seminar, as many as 90. So for a five year period, there were a considerable number of attendees. I gave them all my email address -- at that time on AOL -- and invited them to ask their questions on an ongoing basis. It became too much to reply individually, so I began DTG. Amazingly enough, most people in the graphic arts industry ask the same questions.
When I got heavily involved in the user group community after 1987, I started 60-Second Window as an editorial commentary column as part of Don Rittner's Mug News Service, distributing content and DTP templates on 400K floppy disks. We included 60-Second Window and DT&G, an ezine in DocMaker format on a monthly disk mailing to subscribed user groups.
Although there's no pay or revenue generated by 60-Second Windows, I enjoy doing column, addressing current issues that face computer users. I like to concentrate on the visual arts and visual communications fields, however more recently it's become somewhat generalized, and most recently slanted more to computing survival issues like security, and spam.
I invite you to contact me, and share your reactions to my columns -- or even to publish your own -- make it your soapbox too. I'd like everyone to enjoy the column and gain some benefit from it.
Thanks for reading, and keep in touch.
Harrisonburg, Virginia 540-433-8402
Please take advantage of everything we have to offer. It will only help you in your daily activities. Please also take advantage of all the opportunities that exist in the online community. Ask questions, offer feedback, and contribute your ideas and opinions. We're here for you, and we're all here for each other.
Back to
* The Design & Publishing Center
* DT&G Online Magazine
* The User Group Network
* The InfoManager
Would you like to carry the 60-Second Windows column in your newsletter or web site? Ask us about our syndication program... join hundreds of others who now publish 60-Second Windows!
60-Second Windows is wholly owned by the Design & Publishing Center, part of Showker Graphic Arts & Design, Harrisonburg VA; in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia -- Copyright: 1990 through present, All Rights Reserved.