FoR OUR CALL TODAY
Hi Bobbi -
For our call today I’m hoping to cover three areas:
Promotional flyer - design review and what to do once it’s printed
A couple of album covers
Update on the tree project
PROMOTIONAL FLYER
Here are a couple of takes on the promotional flyer we discussed.
In addition to reviewing form and content, I’d welcome your thoughts on distribution once the flyer is printed.
MUSICIANS
Two very different musicians - one an established opera and classical soprano and the other an aspiring country singer - contacted me a couple of weeks ago to shoot covers for their upcoming recordings. The opera singer is doing a Christmas record; the country singer produced a record of his own songs.
The opera singer’s cover picture looks like it’s from about 1955 but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There are a few things I could do better next time but I’m pleased I was able to pull this off (with Lee’s help).
I’m posting three versions of the typefaces the country singer asked me to do; surprisingly (to me) he chose the most modern one.
TREES AGAIN
I’m kind of stuck on this one. On our last call you suggested I write an article to go with these. I’ve shot some more but have had my usual terrible case of writer’s block about what to say about these. We build too much and don’t respect our trees? True, but as a planning commissioner I’ve been very busy lately dealing with our lack of affordable housing. I think there are ways we could build smarter but I’m not at all confident about the future of our oaks, especially some of the first growth ones. And as for the article, I’m not sure whether I’m writing just as a tree advocate, or a housing advocate, or what.
If it’s about housing I might expand the scope a bit to include some construction projects and perhaps some of the large box trees that get trucked to replace the big oaks and sycamores that get ripped out.
OLIVIA
One more fun thing: Here’s a portrait I did of Olivia Perches, sister of my good friend Joe Perches. Joe and I were riding bikes one day and he mentioned needing to stop at his sister’s place in Venice. It’s a crazy eclectic collection of found objects, all bits of wood and stone and metal (no plastic), all beautifully curated. It turns out Olivia was Shepard Fairey’s office manager for many years. He too liked her yard design, in gratitude when she retired he hand-stenciled her trailer.
I was knocked out by the place and asked to come back to take a few more pictures. I really like how the first portrait came out. I used only one light raking across from left to right to accentuate the painting, and knew right away it looked good. There’s a fair amount of Photoshop going on here but only to clean up many details; I didn’t have to alter the light at all.
