Marsha Van Horn

If you’ve ever had a conversation with Marsha, you know it’s a one-of-a-kind experience, so we wanted to give her the opportunity to tell her story in the first person.

She says: “I was born in West Texas but attended school in Louisiana, New Mexico, Arkansas, and of course, Texas. I’ve lived in towns as small as Foreman, Ark. (population 900 at last count) and as big as Seattle, Wash. You would think I didn’t have any roots but I will always claim to be a West Texas girl. I love the open, rugged land, the sweet smell of mesquite.

The summer after my college freshman year, I decided I needed to work. I went to a secretarial temp. agency and told them I wanted to work somewhere that involved art (my major was in fine arts). They sent me to Baxter + Korge, which was a premier design studio. There I began to watch the graphic designers and art directors work and realized I wanted to do it too. Goodbye college, hello learning my craft at the “feet” of some amazing professionals. Actually I had planned to work the summer and go back to college that coming fall. Didn’t make it.

I was with Baxter + Korge for seven years and worked on accounts for companies like Exxon, Schlumberger, and Texas Bank, to name a few. I look at those years as my college education. When the company decided to get away from print, two of us decided to form a new company, Keyline Studios. I was vice president and managed several production artists. Since then, I’ve worked for Goodwin, Dannanbaum, Litman & Wingfield (wow, I can still spell the names), The Focus Group, and a couple of agencies in Dallas.

I freelanced for 10 years before coming to the University of Houston. I started over at the printing plant and really enjoyed working with the people from the different colleges. I hadn’t worked for a printer and doing so gave me a real insight to what was needed from the design/production end of the business. In 2008-2009, I joined Bauer’s communication team, being build by Jacinto.

If you know me, you know you’ll always see me with a book in hand. I also love to work in pen & ink, pastels, and acrylics. I can’t sing (at least not in tune) but love to dance, which some people have actually seen me doing while waiting in one line or another and on a few occasions, in the grocery store. But what I really love is my job here at Bauer and the friends I’ve made across campus.”