three different designers with one thousand different opinions and varying tastes plus three very ‘different’ colours… things are probably going to get messy with our first ‘silkscreen bash’ later this week, if the poster turns out anything like as good as i’m hoping i’ll let you know, if not forget i even posted this…
by sheer coincidence i solved a little mystery yesterday, a visitor to my studio declared herself to be the model whom i wrote about in april last year for the ‘photoq’ blog: they had asked me to choose an image from their portfolio selection and explain why i liked it
i chose this image and it turns out that yes… she is very pretty indeed, yes i was almost right about her age and yes… her thighs really did hurt afterwards…
the life of fourteen year old ‘annalisa durante’ her private diary and how she came to be shot to death on a street in naples in 2004 form the backdrop for a new publication ‘gomorrah girl’ by documentary photographer valerio spada, the book, with a soft cover, varied paper sorts and a staggered binding method using short insert pages was designed by talented book designer syb and has happily just been delivered to my studio this week
the editorial choices made, use of various stock, non-intrusive typography and short pages are all trademarks of his own particular style, the short pages have in fact been used repeatedly in his last few photo books, a trick which in a lesser designers’ hands could rapidly become repetitive and forced
syb however, seems to be able to apply the effect in a relevant and fresh manner for each new document, the whole feels very real intimate and contributes in a covincing fashion to the content of the images and the power of the story being told, not an easy task
an article in the arts section of the dutch newspaper ‘het parool’ from journalist jan pieter ekker dated 19th of january bemoans the role of marketing departments in the choice of imagery for cultural posters and specifically as relates to the work of designer ‘lex reitsma’ who has designed the posters for the dutch opera (dno) for more than twenty years now
evidence for this phenomenon is mainly provided by two poster designs for the same production ‘the cunning fox’ both by the same designer and with virtually identitcal typography… one (2006) with a clever image of a smoking gun in the form of a fox’s tail, the latest (2010) with a rather staid ‘on stage’ image instead, based on this evidence and the fact that i had also noted the change for the worse in this case, one finds it hard to disagree with the arguments
although the fact that the journalist and designer are acquainted makes me wonder why neither the designer nor the marketing department in question, were asked to react to this article, it does seem to be a change for the worse but do they agree and if not, why?…
here are a few images from my ‘work in progress’ identity and campaign for the ‘fotofestival naarden’ taking place in may this year…
