A few from behind the scenes

So I had a chance to sneak in the back door of Chase's recent CJLive gig with We Are Augustines. They're a totally positive, honest band and it was great to be there and see it happen live. Chase and the band had a great discussion about making art, and it felt great to pull apart Polaroids as Chase took pics. Fun to get your hands on things and have pictures you can hold again. Nothing spectacular here, but it'll give you a feel for what was happening. Check out Chase's site for a rebroadcast.

One mailer's story

In answering questions on Chase Jarvis Live, one of the themes that emerged as a hot topic was around how photographers should contact companies or prospective clients. A mailer? An e-mail? A portfolio?  I gave a few pointers that I thought would be helpful in Chase's blog, but also thought it'd be interesting to share a few real-world examples of how we experience new work and discover talent. I know photographers and creatives in general put a lot of work into how they represent their work, and it's often done with very little feedback after you hit send or put that stamp on it and send it into the cruel world. To help show that the world isn't entirely cruel, I thought I'd trace a mailer or two as we get 'em and describe how we interact with them. With that in mind, here's how one story played out.

My co-worker and awesome art director Brian Benthin (follow his twitter here) comes walking the ten steps over to my desk with a sharp looking photo bedecked envelope and says, "Check this out." If Brian's sharing it, it's bound to be good, relevant or just super interesting, so it already has my attention.

Good clean branding for Nick, and nice shot that's tied into the others.

The main spread.

Stylistically, it's compatible with what we're doing. It seems like an outdoor image happening, with nice cold tones and a cool pop of green. I'll bite.

I open it. Clean design, cool paper. I unfold it. Same runner, winter scene. A story is unfolding, supported by each additional image. Interesting casting, as it's an older women out running, not typical model perfection. Seems like it'd fit well with my "real people, real places" mantra. I tell Brian I dig it, and when I turn around he's already on Nick's site checking out his work.  We spend a bit of time digging through the portfolio, which we like because it's organized in stories, too. Love the portraits. I'm flipping the envelope over in my hand, notice a couple of stickers that tout his accomplishments -- one a PDN endorsement, and the other a call to a new motion project.  I like the confidence and third-party endorsement.

Brian checking out Nick's work online.

 
So that's the story of Nick's mailer. It didn't make us call him with an offer for a project instantaneously, but it had us enjoying his work, and thinking about how his style could fit into our plans. We now know Nick, and before he sent us this we didn't. Nick got our attention with a few smooth moves:

Great photos.
Clean design (trust us, we care about this)
Good story telling
Nicely edited photos
Unconventional casting

As others rise to the top of the pile, I'll try to share the experience as well. Hopefully this is interesting and helps make you feel like representing your art is worth the effort.

Anybody need half a giraffe?

I found this while researching a project. So much right and wrong here. The downtrodden posture. The happy little free shipping bug (sweet deal!). The mother's day ad. The price. All of it has me wondering if I can get a good deal on the back end. More information here, including the beautiful opening line of "with a profound respect for ecology." I don't know how they knew the name of the poetry book I'm writing, but indeed. 

American Metal vs. Whitespace

Who wins? Everybody!

Ever wanted to start you own business? Meet Salt & Straw

I really enjoy people who pull the curtain back on how things work. Chase Jarvis does this really well, demystifying many parts of photography in an earnest effort to bring creativity to the masses. Inspired by this, I thought I'd run a couple of profiles on projects that I have a behind-the-scenes view to. I'll be rolling a few out over time, but to get things started I'd like to introduce a new company called Salt & Straw, started by my friend and marketing wiz Kim Malek.

Salt and Straw is an old-school ice cream shop that Kim will be opening up in Portland, Oregon on May 25th. It's the kind of project I like, in that Kim's working hard to make her ice cream out of the best, local ingredients, and mixing new-school delicious flavors with old-school hand-making methods. It should be a good combo, and it'll be fun to see the physical form the business takes. Kim's already doing cool, new-school transparent things like involving her customers in flavor development and cart design. I like that a lot. It's not surprising really, because Kim's super nice, and brings a lot of energy and integrity to whatever business she's involved with. Kim and I have worked together in the past on some projects with Cupcake Royale. Prior to that, she was working in the marketing arm of the progressive RED effort, and before that I think she was deep in the heart of Starbucks. Let's just say she knows what she's doing when it comes to putting a plan together. And fortunately for us, I managed to talk her into sharing what it takes to take a great plan and turn into an actual business.

In future updates I'll get into the nitty-gritty of building the business as it evolves real-time. Kim has nailed down the name, the logo, the location and the opening date, but everything else is evolving, shifting, and generally taking up the time she used to use for sleeping. It's fun stuff, too, if you like thinking about all the details that make a business what it is. Everything from the social media strategy to the copy tone to the colors that make up the brand will be covered. I'm a junkie for that kind of stuff, and hopefully a few others out there are too.

The picture below is from an earth day event that happened this last weekend, where Kim was in Portland for an earth day cleanup effort for the neighborhood she's be opening her shop in. She used the opportunity to get to know the people in the area, and brought sweet samplings of her ice cream to share with all. As soon as she recovers from that event, I'll have a round of hopefully insightful Q&A with here around some of the planning issues from her decision to go indie, as well as the latest updates on progress with the store. 

New awesome band names...

This makes me happy (nerd alert)

This makes me happy on many levels. First, that the making of The Hobbit is actually happening and that I know it's gonna be great fun to watch. Second, I get happiness in that Peter Jackson is shooting it at 48 frames per second, and third I like that he's written about this decision at length on his facebook page. It's like a burrito of happiness, wrapped in a warm tortilla of comfort, served on a plate that's pleasantly hot but not too hot to touch. Social media, great story telling, gorgeous cinematography, a commitment to technological advances, and sharing it all out to the people? Seriously Mr. Jackson? That sh*ts for real!

It's a fun world out there. If you think way back to the early 2000s, there was once a day when people didn't give such great behind-the-scenes peeks at how cool (and massive) projects like this go down. People held onto their projects until they pulled back the curtains and heralded a triumphant, "Ta-da!" as their project was presented complete.

Nowadays, there's a ton of information out there happening in real or near-real time on projects big and small. Not only does it make life for those not on the project interesting, but it's also a good way for those neck deep into the work to gather feedback on a project underway. You gotta love that. It can get a brain fired up, and used wisely, all this info can result in learning curves shaped significantly different.