Spice up your Life!

For the November issue of Better Home & Gardens in the regular Style section of the magazine, This month featured Maya Kaimal, creator of a premium line of South India inspired sauces bearing her name, http://mayakaimal.com/index.html We wanted to create a set that did not feel heavily cliqued, a light nod you may say.


The color of the shoot was determined to be plum which was one of the colors chosen by the Better Homes & Gardens team. I am interested to show you some of the thought process's and efforts that went into the making. Assisted by my lovely team Kaitlyn Duboss and Jeanne Lurvey we created much of a set that unfortunately did not make it into the crop of the layout but is there in essence. As mentioned before, A fashion shoot of this kind is often about the subject and the clothes, What we create is an environment in which all this can live visually, thus it can take a backseat to a degree. I always love fashion editorial that weaves in still life and environment like the work of Tim Walker, http://www.timwalkerphotography.com/ who does an amazing job of fusing both environment and fashion but alas this is quite a different genre. 


We used a lot of hand dyed fabrics as I wanted the fabrics to feel soft and washed, some we had dyed professionally for the shoot but some also came from our friends at Elephant Props, http://www.elephantprops.com/ Thanks Michele & Co! We decided to use more European style furniture in neutral colors, Much of this was sourced from other various Prop Houses. I through in a few of my personal Indian trinkets, mainly picked up from the Indian district Murray Hill in Manhattan, NYC. I wanted to include rugs from Madeline Weinrib, http://www.madelineweinrib.com/ who is a favorite rug source for me but the final image unfortunately did not contain her designs. You can see from the "mood board" of props that the final product was very much derivative of this collective.  


This story was shot by David A Land, who I very much enjoyed working with once again, http://www.davidaland.com/2010/10/maya-kaimal-for-better-homes-and.html You can see a cute video of the behind the scenes, which BTW I had no idea was being filmed!! 


I also got to work with the very lovely Jessica Thomas, A very talented Iowa based Art Director, you can check her out on jessicathomasdesign.com

One for the kids!

For the August issue of Better Homes & Gardens I got the opportunity through the Style/ Fashion section of the magazine to meet and work with Karen Kimmel who is a L.A based Artist and also Teacher. Karen has had a prolific career as a conceptual and installation artist, yet she is also a mother of two which may have inspired her to start a new venture — Kimmel Kids, a line of educational tools and toys aimed at getting children and their parents involved in making art. The Exchange Collection, one of her first efforts, is a set of laser-cut plastic stencils, neon pencils and a coloring book, all packaged in a stylish zippered canvas case that you can buy to make a start, see www.karenkimmel.com

Karen has been stressing the importance of creating art and helping kids make "some sick stuff" from California to New York, setting up workshops in which the kids and parents can create.

For our shoot we wanted to emphasize the marriage of art meets kids, Karen kindly shipped over some the rugs she had been working on for an exhibition, collaboration with kids that acted as colorful islands on a very white backdrop. Using her stencils I had the idea of adhering them to the wall in a graphic and simple way, we also used an all white easel, that we had painted white and white chairs, stools and a saw horse table with the materials Karen uses to create in her workshops. 

The story was shot once again by Fashion Photographer, Perry Hagopian, www.perryhagopian.com. You can see him pictured here on set. Mykl Cummins my assistant seen packing up here along with Jeanne Lurvey (not shown) did a fantastic job of helping me. You can also see my sketch created to help the team at Better Homes & Gardens’ understand my initial vision for the set, Usually I stick pretty close to the sketch allowing some wiggle room for things to change, as they always do! : ) 

Hardly "Bob the Builder"!

In the August issue of Better Homes & Gardens, my assistant Jeanne Lurvey and I were called upon to create a set for the magazines Style section, I do this for them every month. The section uses real women, professionals or mom's that are making a difference. This month we were given the opportunity to work with Kate Frick, co founder of Brubacher Building Workshop, a contract design firm based in Lawrence, Kansas. Kate's background is in fine art and architecture, her partner and boyfriend Jesse Brubacher is in construction, They work as designers and builders rolled into one, both taking on the designing and construction together. Check out there work on www.brubacherbuilding.com.

Kate can get down and dirty on a construction site so the juxtaposition of her dressed in feminine clothes to a representation of her environment was an interesting one. I used a finish on the wall that was evocative of finishes she does in her own work. Using a rough wooden floor and building elements such as vintage tools and tool boxes, hard hats, we created a "workshop feel" that would fit in with the theme. You can also see my initial sketches for the set, something that I do for every set designed.

The behind the scenes shots here show the scope of the set, It is not a huge set by any means but it can be surprising how much goes into even creating one set, often for one image. Here are also some details of that set that may have been lost in the final outcome.

The story was shot by the very talented Fashion Photographer, Perry Hagopian, www.perryhagopian.com.

Better Home and Gardens Magazine/ Covers

My fourth Better Homes and Gardens cover for August came out today and I snatched one up at the new stands. I have been asked by the magazine to Produce and Style most covers over the last 6 months. I don't always get to work on every cover as Meredith the publishing firm behind the magazine is based in Des Moines, Iowa. I have travelled and produced 2 covers there, one of which unfortunately did not make it, due to a change in direction for that month, but largely we shoot them in New York with the very talented Kate Mathis, www.katemathis.com

I have featured the March cover on a previous post, to see the planning behind that one you can check out that post. I will post some more "planning" pots with future covers.

The aim has been for me to give the magazine a fresh consistent look over the months, Better Home and Gardens" is the nations third largest magazine in paid circulation and sells 7.6 million copies per month in the U.S.A. As they claim "Better Homes and Gardens delivers more potential buyers than Country Living, Architectural Digest and Martha Stewart Living combined" It's average age of it's reader is 49 years old and 78% of them own their own home.

I understand they have sold very well so that is always encouraging, I hope you like what you see.

Life's Sweet with Amy Atlas!

In the latest May issue of Better Homes & Gardens, My assistant Kimberley Steward and I were called in to create a candy wonderland inspired by the very talented Amy Atlas, recreating a set that included one of her signature dessert tables used in many of her designed events.

Amy Atlas’ unique dessert tables have made her a sought-after event planner in NYC. Amy's story is inspirational, After several years of working on political campaigns and practicing law, Amy decided to return to her creative passion for entertaining and party planning.

The set was incredibly fun to pull together as you can imagine, Mountains of cupcakes and candy, that we sourced with suppliers that Amy likes to use. My favorite was the big over sized balloons which you only see a peak of in the final shots, but we had a half a photo studio filled with them it felt! Photographer, Francois at the end of the shoot, had particular fun jumping into the pile, let's just say a few went to balloon heaven! : )

We wanted to give the sense that Amy was in the process of preparation so we found a lovely vintage ladder which did not appear in the end either, but it's our job to create the environment, It does not mean all our props become stars!

See some of the behind shots here, plus a shot from Amy's website, See more amazing examples of her work by checking out Amy's website and blog at www.amyatlas.com

The story was shot by Francois Dischinger.

In the Garden with Flora Grubb

As part of my work with "Better Homes & Gardens", my continued contribution to their Style Fashion section enables me to meet some very interesting women. With a change of direction, recently came a move away from using traditional models for real women. The idea for me is to try and encapsulate a mood of what they do as a profession and create a set that allows the reader to have an instant read without overwhelming the purpose of the shoot which is to showcase clothes that would suit them but also inspire the reader to relate to a more grounded and professional woman, of which are featured each month.

One of these women who I find extremely inspirational is the aptly named Flora Grubb, A gardener since age 5 who hails from the West Coast in San Francisco. She is the owner of "The Flora Grubb Nursery" in the Bay view area. She works with what some may describe as offbeat plants, low maintenance, drought tolerant varieties such as succulents and air plants. Her approach I find is very sculptural, check out her work at www.floragrubb.comm, beautiful vertical gardens that are like living art and the amazing "Wooly Pocket system" that is made out of recycled water bottles, A hanging garden, See images on this post.

My job was to reinterpret an essence of her, so I took inspiration from images on her website, working with Art Director Amy Deering, we came up with a scheme that felt like Flora, opting for a softish green rather than red galvinized wall featured in her work to minamize too much of a clash. Working with Flora on varieties that would be available on the East Coast as opposed to the West Coast, my amazing assistant Kimberly Steward helped me organize this. Working with Andy from "The Empire Set Shop", www.empiresetshop.com, We designed the set in advance and Andy and the boys worked on creating the finishes on the walls, even recreating a section with a stoned wall in their workshop and then reassembling it in the Photo Studio ready for the shoot.

You can see here some of the process of the set up day, The shoot was shot by Fashion Photographer Francois Dischinger, www.francoisdischinger.com

Spring has Sprung/ BH&G's March 2010 cover

One of my regular client, "Better Homes and Garden" recently asked me to help them produce their covers. Of course I have had quite a bit of experience with this in the past, having produced all of the "Real Simple" covers while I was there between 2006 and 2008. I also have also worked on many Australian magazine covers prior.

There is a process when it comes to covers, the approach to them can be quite different then a regular feature. The magazine for obvious reasons is highly scrutinized and deliberated by all. Often focus groups can even be called upon to determine the outcome of which cover will run. Therefore a lot of options need to be produced to make sure every angle is covered, Often 2 ideas or more will be shot in many different ways and then it is left to the higher powers or the readers to decide. There are a few rules to follow: often the cover needs to reflect the season it is coming out on the new stands, It needs to also be an "easy read" and jump out. The choice of colors is important, I find the choices of colors are really what drives a covers success at times, but of course the image also.

To give you an idea, "Better Home and Gardens" is the nations third largest magazine in paid circulation and sells 7.6 million copies per month in the U.S.A. As they claim "Better Homes and Gardens delivers more potential buyers than Country Living, Architectural Digest and Martha Stewart Living combined" It's average age of it's reader is 49 years old and 78% of them own their own home.

With such a large circulation, It is very important that the right image is chosen. My approach is to start the process by working with an existing theme in mind, Often the magazine will give me a few words like "Eat Healthy Kitchen" , "Spring Clean" or "Summer Entertaining" to work with. Sometimes they have a clear idea of what they want to represent this and sometimes they look to me to come up on a fresh take or new ideas all together. In these images represented on this post, you can see an initial pull of 4 out of 6 different ideas that I sketched up. These are reviewed and then I move forward with reworking the favorites or even sometimes a whole new idea. I will then sketch a further 12-16 new ideas and eventually 2 will be chosen from the presentation. I then work through the colors by presenting color chips and when these are also approved, I then go propping. In this post you can also see here some ideas with actual props beginning to formulate at one of the Prop Houses.

With this cover we wanted a quick easy centerpiece or decorating idea that the readers could do with flowers. The cover comes out at the launch of Spring so the flowers and colors reflect that. My idea was to use an eccelectic collection of cups and saucers that most people have even perhaps in the back of their cupboards and stack them on top of each other to form different heights and shapes. The idea also alludes to a "Garden Tea Party", common in Spring. As a second option we also shot a version with cylinder vases combining vegetables and flowers. The cup and saucer version was however chosen and then it was liked so much that an accompanying story was published inside with some of the overs from the shoot which was great as many times the other options are never seen.

In the end the image chosen was by coincidence most peoples favorite who worked on the shoot, It was very exciting to see it on the new stands when it came out last week, I hope you enjoy the nod to Spring, especially when a lot of us are knee deep in snow.

This cover was shot by the wonderful Kate Mathis www.katemathis.com, who I have the pleasure of working with quite often, She insisted on doing a version backlit on this set up which ended up being the one that ran, It was a good call as the lighting is beautiful, I am sure you would agree.