Photo + Design Exhibition Opening - 07/20/11

On Wednesday July 20, 2011 from 7-9 pm there will be an exhibition opening of some of my photos and designs at Miwa Alex, a venue on 22nd Street between Park Avenue South and Broadway in NYC.

In the show I have incorporated some of my studio photos and designs as well as some imagery from The Museum of Messages . While walking through the gallery and looking at the art on the walls you can also enjoy some delicious rosé or sauvignon blanc from Parlay.

I look forward to seeing you at the opening.

Luck

Last week I was asked to photograph six pieces of jewelry for a designer Tirza Fine Design based in Brooklyn, NYC. I set up my studio with black plexi on stands, to place the jewelry on, my lights, reflectors, camera and laptop and shot different variations. It was a two day job.

After the photo shoot I chose to design a poster for my portfolio. I added the green line element on the top and the bottom of the page, which leads the eye into the ring, then with Arial Narrow, my font of choice, I typed, kerned and placed the "lauren collection : ring by tirza fine design" on the left side of the page and lastly added "luck is believing you're lucky- by tennessee williams" on the right side of the page.

If you'd like to see it at a larger size visit http://www.helenavstudio.com/.

Thoughts?

Gorgeous Letterpress Printing

This morning I went on press, downtown to review my wedding invitation designed by my friend Casey Coyle Lozoraitis, http://www.caseycoyle.com/. She introduced me to letterpress printing. If you are wondering what that is, it is when you see copy indented into a thick piece of quality paper. It is a beautiful effect! If you'd like to see an example visit the homepage of Aldine's website, http://aldine.com/.

If you ever want to use a good letterpress printer I highly recommend Aldine, quality printing and service too!

Hello Sunshine

Happy Spring Folks!!!!

A few weeks ago I was walking downtown on 5th Avenue in NYC and saw all these vibrant colors in the Kate Spade window. I had to go into the store, so I did. When I entered I saw this great hat (above) that reads "Hello Sunshine". I am builiding my photo design portfolio so I thought why not create an advertisement?!?!

I bought the hat, returned to my studio, spent two days photographing it at different angles and a few more days working in post production and designing the ad above.

If you'd like to view it at a larger dimension you may at :

http://bit.ly/gwFGT7

Do you like it? I'd like to hear your opinion if you care to share.

Spark-Inspiration For Creatives

Spark is a group of independent graphic design professionals who meet each month to enlighten each other on the business and creative issues that are relevant to design studios.

They are having a panel on mobile app design that I thought to share with you.

New Date/New Location: Tuesday April 19th at Noble Desktop.

Spark Panel - Mobile Apps Design, Production and Strategy

Where: Noble Desktop  | 594 Broadway New York, NY 10012
Time: 6:30 pm time to chat; 7:00 pm discussion begins
Cost: Free for members, $15 for non-members
RSVP: rsvp@sparknyc.org

Mobile Apps are exploding in popularity and forever changing the way we communicate. Find out the latest in apps innovation, and how some smart designers are using it. Our panelists will discuss:

 Concept strategies that make them relevant for clients

 How to scope and price them. What the production process and timeframe entails

 What is the unique interface vocabulary that is being created

Panelists Include:

Alon Koppel
Alon founded FusionLab, Inc. in 1999 after working in NYC as a designer and art director. FusionLab focuses on information and interface design for web and mobile devices. They believe in clean design, hard work, and exceptional client service. Clients include Thomson Reuters, The New York Landmark Conservancy, Condé Nast, The Population Council, The Joan Mitchell Foundation, Architectural Digest, The Authors Guild, Montefiore Hospital, as well as local nonprofit organizations and businesses.

David Link
David is the co-founder and creative director of The Wonder Factory, a creative company that creates and manages humongous, complicated site launches. Clients include WebMD, Martha Stewart, Newsweek, National Geographic, Food Network and Flock.

David is a designer at heart and is happiest collaborating with his UI and design team.
Garrett Murray
Garrett Murray has been designing and developing web and mobile applications for more than 10 years. His clients include Delta Airlines, Pfizer and the United Nations. He designed and developed Ego, a popular and critically-acclaimed iPhone/iPad application for tracking all of your important web stats in a single glance.

Recently, Garrett founded Karbon, a design/development agency in New York City where he and his compatriots are building fun and useful new applications and products.

Moderated by:

Sheri L Koetting
Co-Founder and Chief Strategist of MSLK, a marketing and design agency based in NYC that just launched their own proprietary app, OTO.

Shake It Up - New Photo Design By Helena V. Studio

This week I visited the http://www.pylones-usa.com/ store in Grand Central Station in NYC and was drawn to Mrs. Salt + Mr. Pepper. I photographed them in my studio a few days ago and created an ad, attached above, that I plan on submitting to Pylones for review.

I thought to share a little about my production process because some of you may be wondering "how did she create that?". If you are curioius, read on, if not, I hope you like the composition.

In brief, I printed out "You Can't Eat Money", one of my photos from The Museum of Messages, at 16"x20" and then created a set with my Hasselblad camera, Broncolor lights, reflectors, diffusers and lastly I tethered my camera to my Apple MacBook Pro. After shooting several compositions I chose the sharpest, best lit option and then, in post production, I created the ad above in Adobe Photoshop.

You may see it at a larger scale at http://www.helenavstudio.com/.

If you'd like to share your opinion, shoot me an email at helena@helenavstudio.com, as I would very much like to hear your thoughts.

Production of New Holiday Card

So after spending a full day working on the first holiday card design that I posted to my blog last week, I finally decided that a redesign needed to happen. That being so above you will see the new version.

I set up my lights, photographed this wallet closed, then photographed it opened and in post production I merged the two photos in one frame, played around with different tones for the floor and the background, touched up dust marks, enhanced the colors a bit and added copy. I think it turned out nicely. Do you agree?