Adding a Little Color

Here are three images of the 30 we eventually used. Some made their way to life-size posters, others to screen savers, postcards and brochures. I might upload the entire campaign, but for now, the large size prints are important. I'm considering posting the text screens, too since the package is so right.

A colleague on whose work I reported earlier on this blog--since she launched, suffered through but achieved a Kickstarter--designed the print campaign. I sent to-size (72-inch; 173 cm) 4-color bxw tifs with suggestions for color curves. The designer ran with it as fast as I did, we did some tests, sent some coated digital paper to the wide-format printer at the College and the rest is history.


A quick history at that, since we got the whole thing done--3 shoots, design, printing and installation--in 17 days.

Something to be said about working on great projects with someone who identifies with it as much as you do: The designer and I became friends.

Life-size, the Size of Life.

My posts have dwindled over the last weeks because a project erupted and I flew off to work on it with abandon (read: abandoning everything else).

A colleague came up with an idea to spread some happy but important news to the students in the department where I teach. The news was to announce the new name of our department. We, through a fair amount of deliberation, had renamed our educational department, and everything that entails, from Advertising Design and Graphic Arts (ADGA) to Communication Design (COMD). A major transformation on many levels, way too much to go into now, though I will detail it at a later date.

The professor sketched out thumbnails of students with speech bubbles delivering short, poignant messages, like a comic strip. I'm not a graphic novel aficionado. But, with ComicCon in town and my students bringing me daily reports, I warmed up to it, revved up the engines and flew with it.


I thought of a young, diverse student body in front of the camera with excitement; but that's self-serving.
The purpose of the campaign was to inform students of an important change in their educational program. It had to convey trust, understanding. How to do that--without being--cringe--didactic?

By making the students the messengers, the heroes--not just models. And, if they were gonna be heroes, they had to be big, as big as life, life-size. So that's how I shot them.

The announcements to get people to show up pretty much failed. Three came. I had to take dictatorial action. I held one of my evening classes in the photo studio of my school, gave an independent computer assignment and took volunteers.

Total hit. All but one of my students walked on the seamless and did their thing. I gave minimal instruction; they were all naturals--comfortable in their skin and happy to be alive. And while all had the fairly good looks and the flower of youth, in front of the lights, they ignited. Wasn't a bad shot in the bunch.

Everybody loved every minute of it. Two more shoots followed, then came the production, on which I will report shortly.

For now, here are some of the shots.