Rock, Paper, Scissors

I started photographing a collection of small objects to be blown-up into large scale framed prints. As I began to gather random objects that had some personal meaning, I realized there was a pattern to my choices.

Purely coincidence, seriously, I had a rock I pilfered from the coast of Martha's Vineyard, my grandmother's sewing scissors, and a collection of vintage calling cards. I'm not sure what but, I have a notion this must mean something.

Just a Moment

I've worked on a number of projects with Marc Friedland Couture Communications and most recently completed creation of advertisments for Marc's business. He is well known for high-end, over-the-top invitations and event designs for celebrity clients.

Naturally, I wanted the ads to embody the scope of what they stand for and not just a pretty shot of paper invitations. I outlined the creative goals of the project:

Position: MFCC is not just selling invitations. MFCC is selling dreams. Moments of fun, anticipation, romance, and glamour.

Demonstrable Messages: The act of giving and receiving an invitation is a glamorous act. The right invitation embodies the essence of your event and, more importantly, you.

Before I had even started on concepts, Marc had selected the model. The model was Morganne, a very talented chanteuse (and also a Gemini) with a unique style of her own. Her vintage persona had the right glamorous tone and lead me to working in one of my favorite genres, high fashion 50's.

The amazing photographer, Lara Porzak, and I both gravitated toward Lillian Bassman (shown below) as inspiration for the photographic style.

I then created about 6 different concepts that would work with all the various creative choices and limitations. Shown above are a few of my concept pages for the "special delivery" bird idea including inspiration and sketches. It was this concept that I had hoped would be chosen but initially wasn't so well received.

Marc decided that he wanted to stick with two headlines that he had used previously, "Make Your Marc" and/or "Marc the Moment". This narrowed the concept choices down. The Envelope Kiss concept (final ad shown bottom) fit with the headline, was well received, and as the primary choice, we focused the photo shoot around it.

Lara shot with film (which is now a rarity) and only using natural light. Chasing natural light, it was a whirlwind shoot, for about half a day. After I got all the necessary shots for the "kiss" concept we quickly squeezed in shots for the other concepts including the bird idea.

The following week, with hundreds of amazing photographs from Lara, I started scanning, retouching and composing the final ad concept. I went ahead and created the bird concept shown at top, primarily for me, and shared it with Marc. He ended up loving it and it ran also.

The ads ran in C Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine, and Hollywood Reporter.

Fab...ric

Occasionally, along with branding, product, and packaging projects, I work on interior design/decorating projects. I am currently working on redecorating two bedrooms for a client.

Most design work I do involves creation of something from nothing. Decorating, however, is often more of a curation process; combining disparate elements (some of which you have more or less visual control over) to create the final design. The fabric is one of the more important elements of a room design that is often the "jumping-off" point that will define the direction of a room.

Of course, there are many fabric designs available out there. However, if you are a graphic designer (as I am), the impulse to create your own prints for fabric is really hard to resist. Shown here is a print I designed for a boys room that was inspired by the work of painter Paul Klee.

Like all creative challenges, the excitment of a solution is usually in the combination of elements that may not be expected to go together. To show the flexibility of the print for more sophisticated applications, I've combined the new print's boldness with the more traditional romantic profile of an 18th century Louis XV fauteuil. I think the combo is rather chic.