“FRICKIN’ BEAUTIFUL!!!”

Tuesday October 12th, 2010

That was Leo Gong’s very astute critique of the new print portfolio Sean Stone recently created for him. Leo has been photographing food in San Francisco for 16 years, for such clients as Bon Appetit, Chronicle Books, Mrs. Fields, Nestle’s, Ocean Spray, and Sutter Homes. Partly inspired by Wonderful Machine’s monthly portfolio events, Leo asked Sean to edit, design and print two books, one for us to have on hand, and one for his own marketing efforts.

Sean’s love of food and photography are pretty much equal, so he was very enthusiastic about working on Leo’s book. “I cooked in a few nice restaurants in college, and do all the cooking at home. I’m not a chef by any means, but I have my moments,” says Sean.

The process began with Leo choosing about 350 of his best, most recent images. Sean then began paring the images down bit by bit, brainstorming for ways to organize and design the book. The goal was to make Leo’s portfolio diverse and create strong mood and taste. “I decided to treat layouts for Leo’s book a little like planning a menu. Thinking about flavors and descriptions: fresh, summery, hardy, complex. Creating spreads that are not just visually interesting, but would also taste good together!”

After approving the layout with Leo, Sean chose to print on InkjetArt micro ceramic luster duo. He’s found that this paper has a durable surface and a warmer tone than most double-sided lusters. Blue food just isn’t appetizing! Then Sean precisely trimmed, scored and punched the pages making sure that the pages turn easily and lay flat. After a few hole punches, the pages were assembled into a custom made book from Loveleaf Press in Chicago. Sean chose coffee and cream colored book clothes for a neutral, rich color scheme that wouldn’t clash with the full bleed pages.

Leo is very pleased with the his new book, and we even had the opportunity to show it at the recent portfolio meetings in Chicago, where it was very well received.