Enjoy the fruits of your labour with Mac or PC

I can sympathise with Paul Mepham and his Mac/PC dilemma (Letters, DW 14 February), but we live in a competitive world, so maybe he’s just going to have to invest in a Mac and train himself with interactive CDs and videos to save cost.

My career in graphic design began in 1959 working for Gestetner – at that time the major manufacturer of duplicating machines that used either direct typing or a drum scanner (the Gestefax!) to transfer text or an original image on to a waxed stencil ready for copying.

A duplicating machine was then the only inexpensive way of producing multiple copies of office documents or graphics for short runs. And surprisingly enough, we created and published a monthly 24-page illustrated multicolour house magazine in the design studio.

Nearly 40 years later and self-employed since 1970, I am having to keep up with ever more sophisticated ways of producing design, but I still enjoy the climb up the steep learning curve – Mac-based but not averse to PCs.

Even if you’re fresh out of art college and committed to a career in design, it’s not so much a matter of needing and affording the equipment but having the will to find a way of affording it. As much as I enjoyed my work in 1959, I knew design was not going to stand still. If I wanted to go on with it I knew I’d have to continually invest and learn, which has meant a large cost in equipment over the years.

So Paul Mepham – and I think you’re at least ten years younger than me – like the majority of us who read DW, you’ll just have to bite the Apple and with time enjoy the fruits of its success.

Chris Le Cluse

Le Cluse + Cheshire

London SE1