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Meet Andrew
Andrew Bako can trace his professional background as a designer and illustrator from a rich background of artistic and creative genes. Andrew's father was a commercial artist who encouraged him greatly, and his uncle was a prominent advertising art director in Hollywood, responsible for dozens of memorable television commercials and consumer ad campaigns.

As a youngster, many of Andrew's teachers also encouraged and contributed to shaping his art sensibilities. Andrew comments, "It's a gift, it is a very natural thing with me. Of course I've been a student of it, and I will always be a student as long as I live; the natural part impressed my
teachers. This gift has opened many doors for me."

Before graduating Andrew got his first taste of an artistic professional lifestyle by creating murals. A Michigan native, Andrew proceeded into a dose of factory work, and did a short stint as an automatic screw machine operator. Besides being drenched in cutting oil all day, he shortly realized that working in a factory was not inspiring.

Entering the door of the venerable Lionel Trains Inc. company did ring a bell with him. He started working for Lionel in 1986, just after the company returned from Mexico and just as Richard Kughn acquired the company, saving it from financial ruin. Andrew recalls that many of the departments at Lionel had been liquidated when the company moved to Mexico. Andrew was in the right place at the right time, for his talents were called upon as a
brand new Marketing Creative Services department was being formed, and he was taking on jobs that had been farmed out to agencies.  Andrew is still with Lionel two decades later.

When asked about his new phase as part time teacher, Andrew has this to say:

"I've been told through the years that I would make a good teacher. I think it has a lot to do with my patient manner. It takes a lot of patience to do the work that I do. I guess it applies as I wear the teachers cap. My mission is to help students find themselves, so they don't need me anymore." Andrew Laughs. "It is an honor to do what I do. I feel privileged to have the opportunity to mentor. It is a big responsibility, one that I don't take lightly. They are diamonds in the rough, I just shine them up a bit. Andrew feels the chorus of the John Lennon song Instant Karma sums it up neatly:
 

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Ev'ryone come on


Andrew wears many caps and has mastered them all. As well as being an artist, he also is a guitar player with several well-known groups and is a talented songwriter.  His hobbies are camping, photography and videography, fine art painting, and wine tasting.
 

Meet Andrew



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