Memories of my first job in a firm of Architects
Somehow I managed to come across this disk in the office earlier, promptly taking me right back to my first job in an Architects office in the summer of 1998. This was a summer job before I started my degree. Obviously the tech is fairly ancient but this used to be required to print work from the CAD package of the time – ClarisCAD which in itself was a fairly basic bit of software to a pen plotter. The pen plotter was quite literally a set of pens which looked like mini rotorings and came in different thicknesses. The software would then tell the plotter which pens to pick based on which lineweights you’d used in your drawings. Nine times out of ten it would be out of action due to the obvious flaws of using pens to create A1 drawings at high speed.
In those days all drawings would be printed on trace and then any copies would be made on a dyeline machine which used some pretty awful chemicals along with bright yellow light sensitive paper. The Architects always threatened me with making me clean it as a joke. All admin was carried out in reception by two amazing secretaries. No typing you own minutes and letters. And I also just remembered that there was tea and coffee served on a trolley at 9am and 2pm to all staff. Some things are due for a comeback I think.