Monday, January 26, 2009

Gold is the new green

Today Polina and I photographed Sara Snow. For those of you not familiar with the local celebrity, Sara is an aficionado in the ways of green living. She has hosted Get Fresh with Sara Snow on Discovery Health and Living Green with Sara Snow on CNN.com LIVE. She has most recently authored Sara Snow's Fresh Living; The Essential Room-by-Room Guide to a Greener, Healthier Family and Home. Today we were updating her portfolio of headshots. She came armed to the teeth with brightly colored separates and a stunning collection of jewelry. Each piece looked like it had a story. There was one particular piece I had to ask about:




The coloring wasn’t quite gold, brighter than bronze but duller than brass. It was really cool and vintage looking but the composition felt totally modern. Turns out it was made by this cool jewelry company, Alkemie. Their pieces are forged from reclaimed metals. They can be purchased from econsciousmarket . These are a couple of my favorites… hint, hint Christian.
When you are done buying a new necklace, check out Areaware.
What a great place to go for birthday gifts! This melted army man bowl is almost as hot as the retainer necklace which is almost as cute as the moustache mirror.







Friday, January 23, 2009

The best lookin' show on TV: Mad Men

OK, I am going to post one last late night tribute entry before turning in: I have been jonzin to see the second season of my new favorite television show, Madmen. I received season 1 on DVD for Christmas and had watched all 13 episodes by New Year. The stories and characters are great but the series' styling steals the show. I need to watch the episodes twice; once to watch the characters and again to take in the setting, costumes, hair and lighting:










What a fine looking period the 60's were. And for the record, I believe this was the best era of men's fashion ever. If you are slim, there is no excuse to not own a great two button, fitted suit. If Madmen doesn't convince you, pop in your copy of North By Northwest and Cary will school you on how great a well dressed man can look!
If you could replace your wardrobe with that of a television or movie character, who would you choose?

When a couple of icons get together

So, Polina and I got together for a quick cocktail last week to discuss concepts for a shoot we are doing on Wednesday when she flashed a photo from Louis Vuitton's current ad campaign featuring Madonna. After a little goggling I found this pretty little film.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Happy Black & Blue Year!

On a completely non-design related topic, last night was the season opener for our local roller derby league, The Naptown Roller Girls.






The 2009 season will be the league’s third and will introduce a new junior varsity team, The Warning Belles. Last night our varsity team, The Tornado Sirens, bouted the Pittsburgh’s Steel City Derby Demons. Although the ticket count has not been made official, I am guessing there were somewhere around 3,000 spectators. Our league’s fan base never ceases to amaze me. The average attendance for our neighboring Midwest leagues is more like 300-500 spectators.
Last night was a tough loss for our Sirens. While they managed to dominate during the first half of the first period, Pittsburg eventually figured out the Siren’s strategy, adjusted their game play and swiftly put up a painful point spread. With a solid lead at the end of the first period, the Steel City girls just kept racking up points in a big way. It was obvious that Naptown was not going to win this one. However, when I looked around there was not a empty patch in the crowd. If I were at a Colts or Pacers game people would be filing out early to get a head start on the traffic.
I don’t know what spell our girls have cast on the city, but 3 years later they are just as enchanted. And rightfully so, roller derby is one exciting sport! Maybe it is the fact that these girls do everything for free; they run the business of the league, organize practices, schedule and compete in the bouts and even clean up the pavilion for no pay. In fact, roller girls pay to play! I have always been told that a person is likely to succeed if they are doing something they are truly passionate about. There is something intoxicating about a person with passion and these girls have it. With 5 minutes left in last night’s bout, you could see so much heart on that track. Maybe that is why the fans stay. As long as the girls are fighting, the crowd will have their back.
These images were taken at the bout by our amazing photographers Marc Lebryk and Tom Klubens:








As a retired roller girl I stay involved with the league as a member of the creative committee and a referee. I hope to share some of the behind the scenes work that goes into making this league so amazing but for now I just wanted to introduce you to your Naptown Roller Girls.

*This is for Polina:




Thursday, January 8, 2009

Pep Talk

I may or may not have been told at one point or another that I tend to be a little hard on myself. I am surrounded by a throng of talented people who seem to be basking in glowing success as I am silently making note of everything I wish I had done differently with my last endeavor. These post project reflections always result in me doubting my abilities, getting frustrated that I doubt myself then wondering, “If I really don’t think that what I am doing is exceptional, why do I keep doing it?” I have been short an answer for some time until Ira Glass laid it all out for me. Thanks for the clip Polina. I watch it regularly to remind myself that I too am a work in progress.

Inspiration Unfolds

One cold wintery morning in January of 2007, I was sipping some coffee and flipping through the Times when smack on the cover of the Fashion & Style section was this image:





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I know, I know, this collection is pretty stale and I should be blogging about how Shepard Fairey is quickly becoming a design force to be commercially reckoned with. However, this Galliano collection is constantly in my thoughts as I look at innovations in design that explore folds and creases to create structure, volume and texture. There is something inherently crafty about these pieces that speak to me as a designer and an artist that is always challenging my resourcefulness when asked to essentially make something out of nothing.




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In a way, these pieces almost look like mathematical equations realized. They are beuatifully formulaic. I love their meticulous rhythms and clever exploitations of light and shadow. The reason why I always turn to the Galliano collection is that he did not stop his vision with the creation of a beautiful form. There is an additional layer that defines an identity.



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It is such an inspiring collection for me. In architecture, I constantly struggle with how to treat interesting forms and spaces. I find architects love to make everything white to allow the form to be the interest. As a designer, I struggle with when to embellish and when to let the form read true and pure. Galliano took beautiful forms and successfully kept on going. While each piece would still look lovely in all white, I fear they would lose distinction and become ‘mathematical and formulaic.’ What do you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJDKUtJWgAU