I remember marveling at the macro capabilities of my old Sony 5MP camera … I’m walking around with equivalent capabilities now in my freakin phone.
Category Archives: shoptalk
the smaller stuff
At some point in recent history it occurred to me that I should make throwing work into this stuff bucket a more habitual thing… There’s a lot of projects that come across my desk that are “quickies”. Though these types of assignments wouldn’t traditionally be considered portfolio pieces – I really paused when considering the sheer volume of these that I’ve moved through my desktop over the years.
There’s a discussion topic launch point right there… how this kind of technology has really changed the nature of “portfolio”… Decades ago portfolio pieces *had* to be precious… My perfectly printed samples encased in plastic and slid into that trusty leather binder… the one I’d gripped white-knucked so many times and schlepped into first-time meetings with a potential client or employer.
I just found that old portfolio in this last move. It’s a perfect time capsule from back to about 2003 which was the last time I made an analog presentation.
I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away… that ole piece of cow hide and I went a lot of places together. I can count the fingernail marks on the spine like rings of a tree… “There’s the ones from the Flieshman Hillard portfolio review…. and there’s the one from that one bank… Â and there…”
Oh yeah – about the image. ↑
My old colleague Erin (O’Brien) Wright rang me up from her new job and asked if I could massage a ragged bitmap image their company had cannibalized using CAD to show their company locations. The end destination for the graphic is a large conference room window in their office. The solution (which was actually a little more tedious than you’d think to get to) will install on the glass as three layers of vinyl: 2 on the inside of the glass, 1 on the outside.
the sausage king
This one was a super fun identity gig for Pete Manzo – the owner of… well… you guessed it… “Manzo’s Sausage Kitchen & Market”… but that’s not where we started.
When Pete and I got together to talk about his identity crisis – he’d recently taken over his family business(es) which included a catering company, a food importer, a small market and a sausage company… Each with their own names and sorta-logos.
Right outa the gate we agreed that one umbrella name and logo was needed.
Since this was a multi-generational family business – we wound up gravitating toward heraldic imagery … Â then that’s were we got silly and started having fun.
Referencing the old 1980’s film “Ferris Bueller Day Off” – snarkier friends would refer to Pete as “The Sausage King”…. so… well… why not run with that? It’s funny without knowing the reference to the Gen-X movie classic.
The company is based in a part of Saint Louis which has experienced a lot of re-growth and push to get onto the city’s radar – recently nicknamed “SoHa” (South Hampton).
“Sausage King of SoHa” ?
I put it on one of Pete’s concept layouts as sort of a joke – but… he liked it… so we asked: “WHY CAN’T WE SAY THAT?”
That decision would drive the tone of the rest of the identity which took on a light-hearted, good-natured, “doesn’t take it itself too serious” tone – which echo’s the personality of the man who runs the operation itself… Good ole’ Pete.
The Sausage Coat-of-Arms would be born – partially from the foundation of my own family crest re-design.
We developed two versions of the final logo – a clean and distressed version.
Pete’s partial to the distressed version – but pleaded with (made) him take a set of the clean one as a back-up since I know the whole scratched to death with steel wool look will eventually fall out of vogue.
That said – his original “Nice Sausage” T-Shirts (not my genesis) updated with the new logo  and look in the distressed did turn out great… Anyone wanting to jump onto the vintage beat-t0-hell look for their own projects – you’re welcome to the mask I used on Pete’s. It’s HERE.
If you find yourself in Saint Louis – I seriously recommend popping in on The Sausage King and picking up lunch… it’ll be the best sausage you’ve ever stuck in your head.
seeing the light(s)
Click here for a larger version of the above picture.
I didn’t mention this a few weeks back for no apparent reason other than I’ve only just now gotten to mess around with this.
Alise, – my first employer out of college / mentor / friend… (Don’t confuse “A”lise for “E”lise – the goddess of the black bar) – rather out of the blue called me and asked if I’d like to have some of her old lighting equipment…. I said SURE – and asked if I could do anything for her…. She mentioned the postcards I layout for her annually.
I’ve been doing these for her for a decade…. It’s all based on a grid now and doesn’t take long to layout and prep for press at all… soooo… As far as I see it – she basically said “Would you like to take my old strobe kit for free?”…
Just like the old days.. This was the same rig I used when I was her fresh outa school monkey boy assistant.
Balcor… 2400 watts…. 2 heads… Couple of dishes…
Obviously not enough to run out and open a studio… but a nice tool to get reacquainted with.
Serendipity would arrange all this… Alise had no knowledge of my new years resolution to take more pictures this year…
Serendipity? wrong word? maybe it’s a Secret… (*winks at <“ljuser = sarahparah”>*)
Anyway – the lights would sit in my office for damn near a month…
Last week one of my irregular freelance clients called wanting some food pics done. (I’ve done these before for them – but using natural light).
Voila… an excuse to get off my ass and hook the damn things up and start testing.
Kevin built me a clever light tent last night out of PVC and a fitted sheet…
Messed around by sticking the cats in the box and shooting them… (I haven’t gotten any background paper yet… better do that sometime before tomorrow’s shoot… ugh)…
but wait! there’s nothing more tedious photo geek babble…. so I’ll spare you my hand wringing over remembering how to work with the exposures and what-not – and just try to post experiments as I do them. 🙂