ERA404 NEWSLETTER

SEASON XXV, ISSUE I

Ferris State University Visual Communication Program Senior Lab

Half A Lifetime Ago

APRIL 04, 2026  |  NEWSLETTER

On a rainy morning in the Spring of April, 2002, I walked into a building on Canal and Broadway to meet with an events producer that wanted to hear my thoughts on a Press Day invitation design.

I moved to Brooklyn two years prior to work for a start-up that found my digital portfolio online and hired me a week before I was to graduate college. And while I moonlighted on a few jobs in the past—designing an identity for our campus coffee shop and a logo for another dot-com that would never see the light of day—this project was different. This time, I would be handing out a business card with the newly established sole-proprietorship embossed on the front. The name of the business was born out of a bad joke between me and a fellow intern the summer before my last year of college.

Twenty-four years ago, when I was twenty-four years old, I started ERA404.

This means I've been running my own business in New York City for more of my life than I haven't. Of all the milestones I've passed, I think I'm the proudest of this one.

When I moved to Brooklyn, I used my life savings to settle in a railroad apartment in Park Slope that I shared with a friend from college. I frantically called my brother knowing I couldn't afford the broker's fee and security deposit, along with the first month's rent. He came through for me, wiring me the remaining money I needed. At the back of my mind was always the nagging thought, "If this doesn't work out for me, I could always go back to working for someone else. I could go back home to Michigan."

Fast forward a few years and ERA404 was doing surprisingly well. Clients who liked my design work started to return and, more surprisingly, they started talking. Referrals came in for their colleagues and coworkers and I soon found myself making a decent living in a city not known for decent livings.
 

ERA404 business cards circa 2002, 2006, and 2016

 
But the question these clients started asking was concerning to me. After completing their identity design, print and stationery design, and branded marketing materials, they all wanted to know one thing: Do you design web sites? Apart from a semester-long Intro to Javascript class, of which I was thorough flummoxed, I knew nothing of how to design for the web. There was no substrate, no pre-defined dimensions, no Pantone color chips.

So once again I reached out to my brother for help. Mike, you see, was that one kid from your high school. You know the guy I'm talking about. He was the one that could not only build games on the T1-82 Texas Instruments graphic calculator, but also knew how to create backdoors into them with the equations that would allow you to ace your physics and calculus courses. "Do you know how to build a web site?" I asked.

"No," he said. "But we can figure it out.

Two decades ago, Mike became the Technical Director of the re-incorporated ERA404 Creative Group, managing a team of 25 developers that work with us on a project by project basis. Along with the 15 or so designers and artisans I had been Creative Directing, ERA404 was no longer just a name on a business card.

It was a thriving collective of talented designers, developers, and artisans located all over the world. It was a bunch of college kids that decided they didn't want to work for someone else, but take their chances on their own. It was the American Dream.

Twenty-four years ago, when I was twenty-four years old, I started ERA404. But the reason we're still here and still going strong isn't me. It's you. The first clients that took a chance on us. The contractors willing to lend their skills to help us succeed. The family members that pushed us forward and cheered us along. And you, whomever you are, reading this newsletter and sticking through it with us as you have for the last 24 years.

Thank you for being with me for more than half of my life. I've loved every moment along this journey—the ups and downs and twists and turns—and can't wait to see where it takes us in the future.

Happy 4/04,

Don Citarella
ERA404