Curtis Parker Creates Custom Mural for Panera

Posted on December 7, 2012 by The Pick

4.a.Parker_EmeryvilleMuralArt7x23RevisedDid you know Panera Bread builds each bakery cafe from the ground up, with architects and designers thinking through all aspects of the project, including which neighborhood it’s in? Realizing that, it makes sense that they wouldn’t choose off-the-shelf art for their carefully considered spaces.

And in the case of this custom mural for a building-side in a California location, SHA artist Curtis Parker cooked up a 40 x 12-foot painting that reflected the history of the city — local planners were emphatic that it couldn’t be about Panera itself — as well as evoking the feel that Panera was looking for.

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Rough Sketches

VP / Design Creative at Panera Bread, Jay Jung, said “It turned out to be an amazing piece of art and full of incredible detail and activity” and we’d agree. Curtis did a fantastic job. Jay also mentioned enjoying the collaboration with Curtis, saying “it worked beautifully, just discussing the objectives of the project directly with the artist.” And as little bit of project trivia, Jay added, “If there just happens to be a small group of work men in an obscure corner of the mural enjoying a sandwich from Panera, I really can’t tell you how that got in there!”

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Final Sketch By Artist

To see more of Curtis Parker’s work go here and his Altpick.com page.

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Amanda Koster: TEDX : Love Your Neighbor…really

Posted on December 4, 2012 by The Pick

Amanda Koster, founder of SalaamGarage gets personal while sharing her experiences as a kid, ending up in ‘respite’ care, how SalaamGarage got started with her amazing teams and filled a vital need. Finally, the deeply personal “why” storytelling is so close to her heart.

She challenges the audience to reach out to those who are aging out of the foster care system to Teach1Thing to 1 person that will make a big difference, very simply. Amanda is later interviewed and reviewed by Forbes.

To see more of Amanda Koster’s work go to her website and Altpick.com page.

To read more stories, go to SalaamGarage, click here.

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Walking With The Gods : : Hendrix

Posted on November 29, 2012 by The Pick

What would it be like to live forever? Jimi Hendrix’ passion and soul come through in a new book “The Ultimate Lyric Book” compiled by Jani L. Hendrix and designed by Phil Yarnall of Smay Design. The handwritten and often scribbled lyrics written on hotel stationery are accompanied with personal photos.

Yarnall has been designing for the Hendrix Estate since 1996 when they reclaimed the rights to Jimi’s music from Alan Douglas and focused on maintaining Jimi’s legacy.  Fate smiled upon Yarnall when his design studio was asked to develop deluxe CD/LP (and Cassette!) packaging for Jimi’s core albums (Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold As Love and Electric Ladyland) as well as the album Jimi was working on when he died (First Rays of The New Rising Sun). This led to more releases for Band of Gypsys, Woodstock, Isle of Wight, as well as “The Jimi Hendrix Experience,” a 4-cd box set, described by Rolling Stone as “The Rolls Royce of Box Sets,” which was released in September 2000 and was certified gold.

Yarnall has continued to work with the family, designing numerous singles, posters, T-Shirts and merchandise as well as tour bus graphics and even the granite monument at Jimi’s gravesite.

Hendrix stirred up something deep down. It resonates on the most intimate of levels. A place where a connection is discovered and shared. Igniting all senses in a multi-sensory overload that rightfully begs the question: was he a mere human or a god?

In addition to working on the Jimi Hendrix packaging, Phil had the good fortune to develop deluxe packages for other music legends ranging from Hank Williams and Janis Joplin to AC/DC.  To see more of Phil Yarnall/Smay Design’s work go to his website or Altpick.com page.

Jim would have celebrated his 70th birthday on November 27th.  Happy Birthday Jimi!  Thank you for all of the amazing music!

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Chris Clor’s Retro Gillette Campaign

Posted on November 27, 2012 by The Pick

London agency AMV BBDO and photographer Chris Clor recently worked on a Gillette campaign to promote their latest razor and raise awareness for men’s health issues through the popular Movember Foundation.  The brilliant creative direction is full of cheeky British humor.

“The creatives wanted a vintage, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s style of photography to support the vintage look to the ads,”  Chris comments.  “I did a bit of research to define each era and the style of lighting, but having assisted a portrait photographer early in my career (late 70’s) who’s lighting style was similar, it wasn’t a stretch to come up with a game plan for this.”

Chris had some great talent, wardrobe, hair and makeup, including the folks at AMV BBDO.  “Very creative and a real pleasure to work with.  This is a great town to shoot in…awesome rental studios and support personnel from assistants to stuff staff.”.

To see more of Chris Clor’s work, go to his website and altpick.com page.

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Dana Hursey’s “Stalwart: The Working Class Family”

Posted on November 19, 2012 by The Pick

Copyright Dana Hursey

The inspiration for Dana Hursey’s “Stalwart” shoot was like so many of his personal projects. “The visual just popped into my head. In this case I certainly draw from my own childhood where these iconic figures were the norm, or at least the illusion to aspire to.”, comments Hursey.

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Dana can see a bit of himself , his siblings and parents in each of these caricatures. He has recently been pursuing a style that attempts to capture a small touch of an illustration feel, while remaining photographic in nature.

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Hursey continues to say, “I use this to varying degrees depending on the subject, content, and story I am trying to tell. Simply put; I’m playing… and its fun! I am continuing to pursue imagery that has a somewhat “retro” feel to it (some have called it Norman Rockwell-esque) and am creating another series on a different theme, but still with references to the past.”

Copyright Dana Hursey

Copyright Dana Hursey

Hair & Make-up: Tania Russell                                                                                          Wardrobe: Holly Copeland                                                                                             Retouching: Lisa Carney & Dana Hursey

To see more of Dana Hursey’s work go to his website and Altpick.com page.

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Kristofer Dan-Bergman’s “Unbound”

Posted on November 15, 2012 by The Pick
By Kristofer Dan-Bergman
The series was inspired by a book I received from my parents which was written by my grandfather’s (farfar in Swedish) brother who wrote short stories about regular life situations. The title of his books was Dan-Bitar (Dan-Sniplets).  The book I received was titled ‘Dan in USA’ and was about his observations of New York at the early part of last century. Since I had been thinking about how I would see a book through the lens for many years I decided to finally explore it with this book.
It was during a Christmas break so when I got back to New York I shut myself in to the studio for a week.  Cranking up the music and started exploring.  I shot it with my Hasselblad 2 1/4 on Tri X film.  The more I explored the more interesting it became.
In the end I had many b/w contact sheets.  When I started printing it I felt it was a “little dead” so I decided to give it a try in color printing.  I explored the different colors and fairly quickly felt a warmer tone would be the direction to go.  It sure gave the images more life…. and Voila!
The exhibit: I was asked late last year if I was interested in exhibiting at Lighthouse Gallery in Vero Beach and of course I was.  I proposed to them a few different options.  After talking it through we settled on the ‘Unbound’ series.
See the complete series here.  To see more of Kristofer Dan-Bergman’s work, see his altpick.com page.
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Duggal Visual Solutions Interviews Photojournalist Peter Turnley

Posted on November 14, 2012 by The Pick

Duggal Visual Solutions, Inc. conducted an interview with esteemed photographer and client, Peter Turnley, to discuss his career and views on what he’s witnessed and how he looks at photography. Peter is an internationally published photographer who has covered many major historical events over the last three decades. Duggal was fortunate enough to spend some time discussing his life and the many factors that influence his work.

Duggal also had the opportunity to print many of the featured photographs for Peter Turnley’s exhibition entitled, “The Human Condition” which opened in Paris last month. The show was a retrospective of the decades worth of images Mr. Turnley has captured throughout his career. Duggal’s distinguished printer, Misha, handled all of the Digital-C prints for the show, including all of the color prints that were on display, as well as a number of the black & white images. His attention to detail and craftsmanship captured the vast emotional web that decades of historical conflict and the great human narrative lay in, with great aplomb.

 

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Artists’ Guilty Pleasures at Fowler Arts Collective

Posted on November 13, 2012 by The Pick

Daniel Fishel is part of a group exhibition of the top 25 illustrators under the age of 35 at the Fowler Arts Collective, sponsored by the Society of Illustrators. The group show is called Eye Candy, and all of the artwork revolves around the artists’ guilty pleasures about living in New York City. “My guilty pleasures are more things I hate about the city. Like why can’t I get Shake Shack in the winter time or why does the NY Public Library smell so bad or why can’t I camp out in Central Park?”

Other exhibiting artist include:  Wesley Allsbrook, Elizabeth Baddeley, Jonathan Bartlett,Chi Birmingham, Sam Wolfe Connelly, Exit Deer, Johnny Dombrowski, Jensine Eckwall,Jeremy Enecio, Jared Fiorino, Daniel Fishel, Nick Iluzada, Tara Jacoby, John Malta,Keith Negley, Robyn Ng, Victo Ngai, Tae Querny, Matt Rota, Ross Schaner, Dadu Shin, Kim Sielbeck, Kyle Stecker, Skip Sterling, and Katie Turner.

The exhibition can be viewed by appointment. Contact them ((((here)))) to view the exhibition or inquire about the art. All art is 10×10 Acrylic and Acrylic ink on paper mounted to board.

See more of Daniel Fishel, Elizabeth Baddeley and Tara Jacoby’s work on altpick.com.

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Mark Peterman Makes Room for Another

Posted on November 9, 2012 by The Pick

Mark Peterman’s personal project on his daughter highlights the transition of becoming first-time parents.

With the addition of his daughter in 2009, Mark and his wife had to change and grow in new and unexpected ways. “The impact that my daughter has had on my life has been immeasurable,” Mark explains. “She has a tazmanian devil-like energy that I can only try to keep up with and clean up after.  It takes a lot of energy to maintain a household and both our careers.”

Mark’s project is about Maisy’s exploration of her new world, the toys Mark picks up after she goes to bed and the evolution of their lives from being a couple to becoming a family.

The poignant images show that making room for another person in your life brings patience, love, understanding and encourages you to embrace the difference to experience the joys.

To see Mark’s ongoing series click here: “Making Room for Another“and his work on Altpick.com, click here.

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Oltretorrente Wine Works with Italian Duo

Posted on November 7, 2012 by The Pick

Lorenzo Gritti has been working together with Nina Cuneo, one of his colleagues at  Studio Armad’illo,  to completely re-design the label for the exclusive Oltretorrente wine brand.  The company gave a chance to to the dynamic duo to collaborate on the new look. Lorenzo created the illustrations and Nina worked on the graphic design.  The concept defined a style that gives the Paderna, Italy based brand an appealing edge.

To see more of Lorenzo Gritti’s work go to his website and altpick.com page.

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