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# Up Close and Personal: Getting to Know Guy Schum, Design Consultant, Writer, Author and Lecturer
- URL: https://capitolcommunicator.com/up-close-and-personal-getting-to-know-guy-schum-design-consultant-writer-author-and-lecturer/
- Published: 2015-08-18T20:44:40.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-01T20:56:01.000Z
- Author: Cade Martin
- Tags: Profiles, Up Close and Personal, #Import 2026-10-08 18:46

![rsz_guy_schum_1119](https://storage.ghost.io/c/50/16/5016dd29-aeff-4565-a68b-cdbb78bc58e6/content/images/2026/10/rsz_guy_schum_1119.jpg)

**Capitol Communicator is running a series** featuring profiles of communicators in the mid-Atlantic. In this “up close and personal” profile, we feature **Guy Schum. Photography for this series is by**[ **Cade Martin**](http://www.cademartin.com/?ref=capitolcommunicator.com)**;** wardrobe styling by Pascale Lemaire for THE Artist Agency; and hair and makeup by Patti D Nelson and Janice Kinigopoulos for THE Artist Agency.

**Guy, please provide us a short bio.**

No academic or university schooling in design; “autodidactic”.

1966-1967, Junior art director, English Creative Floor, McKim, Benton & Bowles Advertising, Montreal, Canada

1968-1970, Conscientious Objector Service as Hospital Orderly during Vietnam War, Washington, DC

1971-1978, Graphic Designer and Art Director for several firms

1978-1981, Director of Design, National Archives, Washington, DC

1981-2015, Owner and Creative Director, Schum & Associates, McLean, Virginia

Currently, design consultant, writer, author, lecturer on English garden history and design

**Are you involved in any other organizations?**

German-American Society

British Vintage Lawnmower Association

The Oliver Cromwell Association

Sons of Union Veterans

Sons of The American Revolution-pending

**What are the things you are most proud of?**

Gratitude to God for:

A loving, patient, and godly wife; our marriage of 48 years; 4 very creative children; 4 delightful grandchildren; love of our German heritage; our little cottage on Nantucket

**Who were your personal role models?**

For their Character: **George Fox**, English Quaker; **Margaret Thatcher; Robert E. Lee**.

**Did these role models offer advice that helped you in your career?**

A multitude through their examples, too numerous to number.

**What professional advice do you have for others?**

Professor **Philip Baxter Meggs** said, “A good designer can turn shit into gold.” In 45 years in the business I’ve seen this done by a few gifted people, and even done it once or twice myself.

**What advice do you have on what’s appropriate attire for business?**

Dress yourself so as not to bring disgrace upon your employer or yourself. Do not let anything you wear to the office, or a presentation, upstage your work, or distract your clients.

Buy a really good full-length mirror for home and the office. Check yourself. Wear deodorant.

**Where do you buy most of the clothes you wear to the office?**

Any place except Joseph Banks. I like the cut and array of late 19th century English clothing. Vintage. I was once in an antique store in Schleswig-Holstein, and got a fabulous dark blue pinstriped vest off a dead German!

**Is there anything else you would like us to know about you?**

Sage words about business, advertising, and design:

“When opportunity knocks, it usually shows up in overalls and looks like work”—Thomas Edison

“Advertising is like rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket” —H.G. Wells