Changes Abound!

June brought with it quite a few changes to our Wonderful Machine family, including two new staff members, one new baby (with another on the way soon), a new position for one of our current staff members, and a farewell to a pair of great friends and colleagues.

Chicago: Arc Worldwide, Leo Burnett, McDonald's Corporation, Element 79 Partners, SamataMason

Jess and Ben recently blew into the Windy City for a series of portfolio meetings.

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June Emailers

Last month we sent 73,625 emailers to 29,424 unique art buyers at ad agencies, magazines, and corporations in the Americas, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Click on the thumbnails below to view the full versions. In addition to our usual bio emails introducing each photographer, we are now sending out mailers highlighting each of our specialties. And in the future, we'll also be creating emailers centered around a common visual element or topical theme (similar to our pink Valentine's Day emailer from earlier this year).

Pricing Photography for Image Libraries

Lately, I've noticed more and more corporations and ad agencies are requesting that photographers quote on producing 'image libraries'. An image library is a pool of pictures that a client will commission, where they’ll license rights to use the photographs from a shoot in a variety of different ways, and they'll often make them available over an intranet to different departments across their organization. The productions tend to be broad in their approach, loosely covering a variety of situations, sometimes in generic ways, rather than having a single specific objective. On rare occasion, library images will be used for ads, but most tend to be used for internal and external communications, and for publicity.

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"FRICKIN' BEAUTIFUL!!!"

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.

• Top 11 things that photographers wish they'd learned in photography school
  http://blog.photoshelter.com/2010/06/the-top-11-things-photographers-wish-they-learned.html
• A "shoot first" approach to surf photography
  http://blog.photoshelter.com/2010/06/how-to-fail-as-a-surf-photographer.html
• Why listening to the client isn't always (or ever) the best way to go. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/06/29/why-design-by-commitee-should-die/
• Maria Piscopo's take on pricing
  http://www.adbase.com/Articles/WhatDoesItCost
• Elizabeth Gilbert talks about Genius
  http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

• Santa Fe Workshops (Kwaku Alston teaching, among others) | Date: Ongoing

• Photography Book Now | Deadline: July 15
• PDN Self Promo Awards | Deadline: July 26
• exhibit A | Deadline: August 1
• PIX Digital Imaging Contest | Deadline: August 12
• World In Focus Contest | Deadline: August 23
• Fotoweek DC 2010 | Deadline: September 30

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