John Huet and Michael Phelps

©John Huet

John Huet's study of Olympian Michael Phelps is incredibly gorgeous. From action/motion shots to detailed portraits John exhibits his artistry at being a top sports photographer. The thing that intrigues me the most is the underwater shots that while displaying sports motion are truly more a fine art approach.

Check out the entire gallery here at cadenbach.com.

Johnhuet.com
cadenbach.com

And That's How Time Flies...

8 full weeks seem to have flown by incredibly fast and each day I kept saying.."Must update blog" and every day kept racing away from me without that time to get a topic and share it. I'm sure I've lost some people in the process but I do vow to update at least once a week.

I received an email a little while back asking about illustrator books that I thought I'd share here.

Question:
What do other people's illustration books look like? I'm talking literally, not so much content-- like are they normally contained in that standard black portfolio? 8 x 10? Or are they a printed book that you can make on line from places like Blurb.com? Literally how many images do they usually include?

I always listen to those great podcasts on Adbase and they speak of such things sometimes, like I just heard mention that in photography plastic sleeves are passe. Just wondering what the current expectations are for illustration.


My Opinion:
I feel like an artist's portfolio is an extension of themselves and gives the viewer some insight to the artist. Most of the portfolios I see are leather bound with the artist's name embossed on the front. But some of my favorites tend to have quirky elements, like a textured cover or a fabric-like cover with your name The one thing I can definitely recommend is keeping the portfolio closer to book or coffee book size. 8x10 is perfect. I've come across portfolios that are so obscenely large in size it makes it hard to flip through at my desk.

I do recommend quality prints and I'd say about 15 - 20 is a good number of images to put in the book. Too few and people feel like you don't have enough work to put in the book and are hesitant to hire, too many and people are overwhelmed. I'd say put together a good mix/range of work that truly represents your breadth of work from personal, editorial and commercial.

I think advice you hear the AdBase podcasts about photography books is absolutely applicable for illustrators as well. I have not seen any portfolios made on blurb as of yet. Definitely if you're putting out a printed book that's meant to be story-telling or a take away book/coffee table book I think blurb is a great idea. For trying to go after jobs I'm not exactly sure if I'd recommend putting forward a printed book BUT I think it's innovative and it really depends on the design of the book and how you put it together.

Update about 'Must Read' post

Last week I had posted some information about a must read.. a designer who was reportedly having his artwork and intellectual property stolen. Of course this wasn't the whole story as we saw a few articles from both sides.

Well in addition to all that hoopla that overtook twitter and blogs everywhere it seems as though the designer, Jon Engle, has taken down his website (which is why the link no longer works).

Here is a post from LogoFactory from this past week (here)

So now that Jon's profile, blog, twitter account and logo design work has been pulled from several sites (in addition to the fundraiser for his legal fees canceled), it begs to ask the question if he's the one being ripped off and having his intellectual property exploited why is he fading into obscurity and backing off?

A severe reminder to all artists to keep meticulous records of your work, metadata attached to the work and to protect your intellectual property.

News

Postings will become sporadic the next few months. This art producer will be starting a new job and will need to throw myself wholeheartedly into this new endeavor.

I will continue to keep the blog going and update as often as possible.

Agency Scoop

A new LinkedIn type of networking website but for the ad industry.
Take a gander or join at Agencyscoop.com.

MITX Event

Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange (MITX), The Digital Combine: The Next Generation Employer and Talent Showcase


A half day program to help both entry-level and seasoned marketing professionals think differently about the job market in general and the digital marketplace in particular.

Chris Colbert will be leading a session entitled "Managing and Marketing Your Personal Brand," which will provide attendees with a different way to think about how they package and promote themselves to create employment opportunities.

If you are interested or know of marketers and communications folk that are out of work or seeking a way to get into the industry please direct them to the following: http://www.mitx.org/events/1825.cfm

The event is free. Attendance is limited to 500 people and is expecting to sell out, so please encourage friends and peers to sign up as soon as possible.

Boston Ad Club

An update since I last posted about this event being hosted by Boston's AdClub (Agency Reunion):
From the Boston AdClub:
"Dear Friends,
With networking being more important than ever, we're excited about putting on the first ever Ad Club Agency Reunion. It promises to be the biggest networking event of the year.

A lot of our friends and partners have already told us they're coming. But we've also heard that some of you would like to attend but can't really afford the $200 ticket because the economy's kicked us all in the butt a little.

So we're offering a special Stimulus Package price of $140.

There's no difference between this ticket price and the full price. You still get a night of networking complete with an open bar and buffet dinner.

However, if advertising continues to be good to you and you would like to support The Ad Club, we will graciously accept the full $200 ticket price.

See you at The Garden!"

See more info here: www.adclub.org/REUNION