Behind the scenes of our promo photoshoot
Well, it's done. The book is off to the printer. Now, we wait! I thought today I'd share some behind-the-scenes images from the photo shoot Martina and I did in August for the book's promotional imagery.
It was such a fun, yet challenging, shoot. After dreaming up the idea for the images and putting together some rudimentary Photoshop mock-ups, I approached Brunswick floral designers Cecilia Fox to supply the lovely blooms. I trusted Melanie at Cecilia Fox to choose a range of beautiful flowers and blossoms (16 in total, one to represent each of the book's interviewees!) but of course we wouldn't know until the morning of the photo shoot what exactly would be delivered!
In addition, what you may or may not have realised, is that we didn't actually have a copy of the printed book to photograph! Instead I had a blank book made up, and the cover design was digitally inserted in Photoshop after the fact. So while the idea was fully formed (and looked great) in my head, and the shoot was meticulously planned, there was still an element of doubt as to whether the images would come off as hoped.
The photo shoot location was the gorgeous Lightdrop Studios in Kensington's Young Husband building. Melanie, of course, came through with some fantastic options, fresh from the flower market that morning. And while Martina got to work setting up all the professional photography gear needed to get the lighting just right, I started preparing and styling the blank book and the flowers.
Again, the inside spreads of the book were also shot blank and inserted after the fact.
I'm pleased to say that the final photos - retouched slightly and with the book graphics added in - looked better than I could have ever imagined... AND my usual spring-flower hayfever stayed in check ;)
Thanks Martina & Melanie for your help!
All photos above (except for the first one) by Martina Gemmola.. Poster design by me.
You're invited to our next event!
The last of our speaker events for 2013 has been almost a year in planning, and we can finally announce it. It features a guest speaker you have probably heard quite a bit about this year on the creative business grapevine: Clare Bowditch!
Clare is a multi-passionate creative woman: award-winning musician, writer, creative-business coach, social commentator and actor. She has performed in front of hundreds of thousands of people over her career and is a passionate supporter of artists and creatives bringing their ideas to the marketplace. To this end, this year she launched Big Hearted Business - a platform to teach creative people about business and business people about creativity - the success of which has astounded her.
You can learn a bit about Big Hearted Business at their website, or via this little story from ABC TV a few weeks ago (also featuring CWC Full Member and letterer extraordinaire, Carla Hackett!).
Join us on Sunday 20 October to hear Clare's career story and the lessons she has learned along the way... it's sure to be a thoroughly energising presentation!
We are also excited to be partnering with the good folks at both Gratton Design and Good Grace & Humour who are adding some lovely touches to this event.
Tickets and other relevant details are on our Upcoming Events page.
Hope to see you there!
Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two pre-order special offer!
Eeek! Did you see The Design Files today? The news is finally out: Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two is now taking pre-orders! Who is featured? Like the much-loved first volume, this new book is a collection of exclusive interviews with some of this countries finest creative minds. The full list of interviewees will be announced over the next couple of weeks, but here are just a few of the stellar creative ladies I had the privilege of chatting to for this book...
Each lady talks about her career path, offers tips and advice, and shares with us details that give us a great insight into the world of a busy, inspiring creative. There's some more info on each of the interviewees on the Volume Two book page. Details of the other interviewees will be revealed in the coming weeks!
The book will be a strictly limited edition print, and officially launched on November 15, but you can pre-order now to reserve your copy.
Pre-order special offer! Those who pre-order before the end of this month will receive their copy wrapped in a beautiful piece of fabric designed by Emily Green, Lara Cameron or Catherine Campbell and printed locally by Frankie & Swiss. After reading the book, I hope you will be inspired to make something from the fabric and share it with us! Find out more and see the designs here. Exciting!
Threads: A forum celebrating women in art and design
Here's heads up about an exciting upcoming RMIT University event in a couple of weeks time.
Threads: A forum celebrating women in art and design brings together a collection of talented Melbourne creative women speaking on their pathways to success, fine lessons learnt in the process and what drives them creatively.
Not sure what I will talk about yet (!) but I'll definitely be taking notes from the other amazing speakers: artists Miso, Maryann Talia Pau and Isobel Knowles; Kloke fashion designer Amy Coombes; and Heide Museum's Lesley Harding.
If you would like to come along, tickets are just $20 and available here. The event is a fundraiser for RMIT's Diploma of Visual Arts end of year exhibition.
The details:
Thursday September 12, 2013 6.30pm Student Academic Building Building 80, Level 2, Room 7 445 Swanston Street, Melbourne
Hope to see you there!
New eBook: Graphic Design Speak - General advice, technical tips and jargon defined for non-graphic designers
by Tess McCabe It's finally done. If you follow me (Tess McCabe / @tessmccabe) on Instagram you might have seen glimpses of a project I've been working on lately. I'm really thrilled to finally reveal it here: my new eBook Graphic Design Speak.
Graphic Design Speak is about giving non-graphic-designers a working knowledge of the words and concepts graphic designers commonly use, without explaining the history of graphic design or going overboard with the technical talk.
As a graphic designer, this information is well known to me - but I recognise it's extremely important and useful for non-graphic-designers (meaning makers, interior designers, publicists, writers, musicians, bloggers, performers... anyone in a creative role themselves or who works with a graphic designer) to know as well.
The 27-page eBook explains:
- Basic colour terms like Pantone, CMYK, RGB and what they mean
- Common file types and where you use them (a.k.a. Why can't my printer just get my logo from my website and put it on my business card?)
- How to distinguish a high-resolution image from a low-resolution one (a.k.a. A journalist has asked for a high-resolution image for a story about me, but how do I know which one of these image files to send?!)
- The standard paper and envelope sizes
- Facts about fonts
- And over 85 common words and phrases us graphic designers throw around willy nilly.
Those multiple back-and-forth emails with your techy-nerd friend or frantic late-night forum-reading can be avoided with this helpful little handbook! And you will feel empowered with knowledge and enjoy a better working relationship with graphic design professionals as a result.
The book is available to download for the extremely reasonable cost of $11.00 only at our online shop. AND Included is a low-ink-use black and white version for printing at home, if you prefer the paper kind of reference tool.
I hope you find it useful!
Join us on Instagram!
Finally - Creative Women's Circle is on Instagram!
Follow us @creativewomenscircle and let us know what is inspiring you.
Here are a couple of snaps from our event with Melanie Katsalidis last Saturday by some of our lovely attendees. The event recording will be up online for Full Members to access soon.
We're coming back to Sydney!
Exciting news: after the success of our CWC event 'Your Intellectual Property and How to Protect It' in Melbourne in February, we've decided to take this show on the road and head to Sydney later this month!
We continue to hear stories of local designers facing copyright infringements of their work by other companies, and since the rise of blogs and image-sharing websites such as Pinterest, understand that protecting our designs is now more important than ever.
Intellectual property lawyer Sharon Givoni has established a reputation for being an entertaining speaker and explaining the law in ‘plain English’. At this special Sydney CWC event, she will discuss a range of IP-related topics and will answer your questions.
This event is highly recommended for anyone who makes or designs their own products to sell, creates custom designs for clients or creatives who design for an employer.
We're thrilled to partner with our venue hosts Shillington College in Sydney's CBD. We hope many of our Sydney fans will join us for this informative event, and you'll meet others in your creative community over tea and cake as well :)
More info and tickets over here.