Dave Tompkins,
FIDSA
My last year of gainful employment was six years ago. Himont had changed its name to Montell Polyolefins after merging with the polypropylene operations of Shell. As Director of Design I was the only person in either organization with any corporate identity experience, and my final assignment was coordinating and implementing the new identity world wide, working with the London office of Landor Associates. That completed, my plan to retire at 60 and Montell's decision to quit playing in the industrial design sandbox coincided nicely and I took an early out in late '95. We left Delaware for Florida in '96, built our house on North Captiva Island and moved here in October '97.
This is a bridgeless barrier island just north of Captiva and Sanibel Islands, about five miles out in the Gulf of Mexico (Ft. Myers area). You get here by boat or light plane. The upper third of North Captiva has some 270 homes, all built on pilings, while the remainder of the land, almost four miles long, is a state-owned wildlife sanctuary. There are no stores or movies and no roads or cars, just sandy trails folks travel in golf carts and bicycles. (My '66 Sunbeam Tiger was sold and shipped to Germany before we left the mainland.)
I designed our house and had it constructed only through drywall and plumbing stubs in some sections. Over the past three years, in the course of finishing three bedrooms, two bathrooms and our studio/office loft, I've laid tile, installed fixtures, built closets and worked out a thousand design details. My wife and I are active in the civic association, the de facto government on the island, and we publish the quarterly newsletter. Friends and relatives seem to have a steady need for graphic design help - letterheads, logos, brochures, etc. - which I churn out on my trusty Mac and get paid for in bottles of single malt. All this, coupled with some furniture building and the occasional watercolor painting, seems to keep my design monkey adequately challenged.
In answer to Bob Blaich's rhetorical question of why anyone would not choose to live in Aspen, I say: A) Colorado makes my nose bleed, B) scuba and sailing are more fun than skiing and C) hurricanes are way more exciting that blizzards. C'mon on down, we'll show you some of the prettiest unpopulated beach in America.