I’ve been admiring the work of Suzanne Summersgill at Pinn Studio for years and am thrilled to finally have a chance to work with her. (She’s doing an illustration for our upcoming Jan-Feb issue.)
Here’s a piece from her website, “The Brave Little Girl.” I love that combination of built textures and whimsy!
Check out more of her work here.
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Tags: 158, illustration, january-February 2010, pinn studio, suzanne summersgill, texture, whimsy
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One of the things that has come clear to me in my job is this: Just about anybody can take a good photo these days.
Thanks to digital cameras, photography —once the mysterious realm of those few who understood the secrets of light and ground glass, distance and timing and chemistry —has been made available, cheap and easy, to the masses. So, now, anyone who clicks away often enough is bound to end up with the occasional nice shot or two.
That said, there is still a huge difference between people who can take good photos and photographers who consistently turn out aesthetically and technically excellent photos again and again. And although there’s plenty a photographer needs to know to create fabulous studio photos, I think the real proving ground for photographers is still in photojournalism/documentary photography —that challenging arena where you’ve got to think on your feet and know when, where, and what to shoot. And there are no do-overs. Requirements for the job: a good sense of timing and a good eye, the ability to think on the fly, creativity, reliable equipment, and . . . fearlessness.
Which brings me to a documentary photographer (and good friend) I did a shoot with this week in Taos, New Mexico, Dorie Hagler. I love Dorie’s style (that’s her photo above) and her spunk.
The first time I worked with Dorie was back in 2000, when I was the art director at Santa Fe’s alternative weekly. For a cover story marking the 20th anniversary of a tragic prison riot at the New Mexico State Penitentiary, Dorie and I drove out to the State Pen. We met the warden—who gave us a rundown of the rules regarding visits and told us we would not be allowed to photograph the prisoners—then were escorted into the maximum security unit.
The guards who accompanied us removed a prisoner from his cell and put him in a metal cage-type holding “box” while they let us peek into his cell. (Dorie stepped in to shoot some photos and the guards slammed the door shut, locking her in and laughing themselves silly. She took the opportunity to grab photos of their jiggling beer guts through the food slot in the cell door.)
We had been told we wouldn’t be allowed to photograph prisoners, but Dorie asked the guards anyway whether she could take a photo of the man in the cage. They said she could if he gave her permission. Thus began a remarkably normal conversation between this tiny (she can’t be more than 5 feet tall) young woman and the convict in the box. Yes, she had his permission. I don’t remember what all they talked about, but as Dorie asked him about his homemade tattoos, the prisoner stretched his arms out toward her in what almost looked like supplication. She got the photo; we ran it on the cover.
On the way back to town, I told Dorie how impressed I was that she had managed to get the photo we were told we would not be allowed to take, impressed with her persistence and fearlessness. She said—and I think about this often—that it wasn’t a matter of fearlessness; it was just that she knew she would regret it if she didn’t do all that she could to get the photos she went there to get. . .
Photo at top is from Dorie’s website, where you can see a sampling of her documentary work.
Second image is a scan of the Santa Fe Reporter cover that ran after our trip to the State Pen.
Tags: digital photography, documentary photography, dorie hagler, NM State Penitentiary, photojournalism
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We’re once again in the midst of production, a nebulous term which includes copyediting, fact checking, photo shooting/image acquisition, page layout, photo optimization, page proofing, finger crossing, and an office drawer full of chocolate.
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Photo: The NM Railrunner South Capitol station, here in Santa Fe. (Dare I say Santa Fe is a pedestrian-friendly town?)
Tags: pedestrian, Railrunner, signs, the making of a magazine
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No, I’m not spewing epithets over here. C.R.A.P. is the easy-to-remember acronym provided to us by the delightful and brilliant Robin Williams* for the four basic principles of design:
Contrast
Repetition
Alignment
Proximity
To give a brief demonstration of how these work, I’m including here some examples from Robin’s The Non-Designer’s Design Book.**
OK, let’s take these principles one at a time. We’ll talk about proximity first. Take a look at the flyer at the right. Notice how the little bold headers are the same distance from the lines above them and the lines below? Each line or paragraph appears to be a separate item.You can’t tell which headline the text belongs to.
And although there’s white space, it’s scattered all over the place, including places where it shouldn’t be, like between the headlines and the text that follows them. (We say this white space is trapped; and trapped white space visually pushes apart the items it’s trapped by.)
Now, look at this version of the flyer. See how the heads and text that belong together are in proximity with one another, with each head-and-text unit separated by white space above and below?
The contact information has been grouped separately at the bottom of the page, so that the viewer can tell at a glance that it’s important. Proximity is an efficient way to immediately communicate to the viewer what he or she should pay attention to.
The alignment here has been changed from centered to left-aligned, so there’s room to make the picture bigger. This further organizes the text, so that the viewer’s eye knows where to go without any confusion, since all the lines begin at the same left margin. (Text that is centered can be difficult to read in large blocks, since the eye has to scan to find the beginning of each line.)
Let’s see. Repetition. Notice how the bold headers (ending in ellipses) are repeated. The typeface used here is also repeated throughout the flyer, as is the color (black, in this case).
And, finally, contrast. In the flyer at the right, look at how the headline is bigger and bolder and in a typeface that contrasts with the body copy. (This typeface is repeated for “Be a Cowboy” to bring home the message, kind of like a call to action. Repetition.)
The headline type is upper- and lowercase, which also adds contrast. (If you look at a line of text that’s in all caps, you’ll see that the shape it makes is an even rectangle. Using upper- and lowercase gives a line of text more shape.)
The little heads or lead-ins were made bigger to contrast with the text that follows them (but they’re still in the same typeface as the text that follows and still in proximity, so they still look like they belong together.)
The illustration is much bigger and was made lighter so as not to overpower the text.
So, there you have it: C.R.A.P. Granted, I’ve oversimplified here, but this gives a brief idea of how these principles work; to learn more, check out The Non-Designer’s Design Book.
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PS Oh, and you probably don’t need for me to tell you this, but. . . for all you wannabe cowboys out there . . .I’m afraid the flyer is a fake.
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*As I’ve said before, yes, THE Robin Williams (and, no, not the actor)
**Prior to working at Mothering, I had the opportunity to work with Robin on a few projects, including this book. Fabulous, fun, and edifying experience. . .
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Do you quarantine the ugly, or do you scatter the ugly?
—Ad Production Manager Melyssa Holik, a.k.a. Mel, struggling with how to lay out less than aesthetically pleasing ads
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Photo of November leaves on our street. Because it would be cruel—to all concerned—to post examples of that to which Mel was referring. . .
Tags: ad layout, aesthetics, melyssa holik
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The way I see it, white space is kind of like the yard or grounds around a stately home. Sure, you could make do without all that lawn . .
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but why would you want to?
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Photos from istockphoto.com
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Tags: antebellum homes, grounds, white space, yard
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I’m lying on my back in the dark, in bed, arms at my sides, covers up to my chin. Brutus, our two-year-old orange tabby, climbs onto my chest, scooting up so that his face is close to mine. Through the thick comforter, I can feel his warmth from my belly to my neck. He is purring. I’m effectively pinned by his weight and my sense of his affection, his catness.
Soon after, there’s a movement near my left arm, and it’s Twombly,* our 5-month-old kitten; never very far behind Brutus, his perpetual sidekick.
Twombly settles in on my upper arm, purring more loudly than Brutus, leaning toward him, resting his kitten head on the bigger cat’s flank. Then the ritual begins. Brutus stretches out a front leg—reaching with his paw, claws retracted—and softly pats me on the chin. Twombly squirms up my arm to get a little closer, then reaches out his paw, claws in, and pats me on the chin, as well, his rhythmic purrs so loud I think he’ll wake Tim.
I thrill to this. Not because it’s a unique occurrence (happens almost nightly) but because not so long ago both of these cats were feral kittens who showed up at our back door, tiny and trembling and in search of food—lured, we figured, by the smell of our other cats. Each was terrified of us, would start at the slightest movement and dart away, through the cat door and back into the seeming safety of the outdoor world.
It’s hard to remember now, but shortly after Brutus first showed up, I awoke in the early hours and saw that he was sleeping with our cats on the daybed where they congregate (a.k.a. “the kitty divan”). As I crept over to get a better look, Brutus awoke, saw me, and leapt to the floor, heading for the door. I bent down and (not really thinking) scooped him up, wanting to reassure him, I guess. Well, 14 puncture wounds and a couple of days later, I was at the urgent care clinic with swollen purple fingers, getting shots. (Afterwards, I found online a site where an expert likened handling a feral kitten to wrestling with an animated cactus. Believe it.)
That was two years ago; Brutus is now a beloved part of our household, the most affectionate of all the cats we’ve had. And now Twombly appears to be following suit, still a little skittish when we humans are vertical, but coming along nicely, thanks to Brutus.
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*Named for Cy.
Photos were shot on my cell phone early this morning, once I managed to extricate an arm.
Tags: Brutus, cats, feral, kittens, Twombly
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fabulous reader photo from the current issue, that is.
This shot of Kenann Thompson, of Takoma Park, Maryland, was taken while she was exploring a cave in Barbados while wearing her two-year-old daughter in a baby carrier on her back.
Tags: Barbados, cave, issue 157, letters, November-December 2009, ocean
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The quality of photos sent in by readers with their letters to the editor seems to have improved markedly over the last few years.
Here’s a stunning shot from the new November-December issue of reader Erin Riggio, of Tacoma, Washington, taken by her brother in Assisi, Italy, as she was breastfeeding her son.
Tags: Assisi, breastfeeding, issue 157, Italy, letters, Nov, November-December 2009
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Our new November-December issue includes a very exciting article by Diana Lynn about intuition: how to raise one’s child in a way that supports the development of his or her intuitive sense.
The article lists some websites with exercises designed to hone intuition. Ad production manager/ staff photographer/web design maven Melyssa Holik and I found this fact very exciting. But, under deadline at the time, we promised ourselves we’d visit the sites later. Meanwhile, Mel said, let’s just practice with simple stuff: “What number am I thinking of? between 1 and 10?”
“7,” I responded without thinking.
“Right.”
“OK, what number am I thinking of?” I asked her in turn.
“3?”
“Yep.”
We both went back to work. (We’re still planning to visit those intuition-training sites, one of these days.)
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Tags: intuition, issue 157, melyssa holik, November-December 2009
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