My largest issue of the year at work is complete. Well, I may be called upon to make a few corrections tomorrow, but the worst is now over. I made the last change for the last client this afternoon and I’m now wasting some time, because I need to head to the Broad Street Cafe this evening to mix some sound. And it’s too far and too little time to go home to Carrboro first, so here I sit at the office. What a perfect time for a blog post!

This was a mighty rough week. I lived at the office all week. I ate, breathed, slept and basically lived here while designing print ads. It’s a nightmare, the deadline for this 700+ page issue. But now it’s over… time to head to the Broad Street and be bullied around by private party planners demanding to know why I wasn’t there earlier to help their band set up. Fun.

Here’s a quick thing. I came up with something really cool a few days ago. I had to create an ad with a ’sixties’ feel. Halter tops were involved. Therefore I found a stock photo of a halter top. I though it would look very cool to have the halter top be an actual color photo, but have the girl wearing it be a silouette. I’m sure this has been done before, but I’m not a professional designer people. Anyway I had a photo of a halter top to work with, so I had to find a photograph of a girl from the correct angle to match the halter top photo. Even after I found the photo, it took some creative photo-shopping to make the thing look seamless. Here is my creation:

I liked it a lot. I decided it was the most creative thing I had done in a while, and would surely be a standout point in our otherwise garrish magazine. When the client saw it, their response was ‘Um, that doesn’t work for me. Please make it brighter and more risque. And throw some peace signs in the background for god’s sake’.

After much huffing and puffing I did exactly what they wanted, because that is my job. To my amazement I found a photo that worked perfectly with my layout, of a ‘more risque’ girl in a sixties outfit complete with halter top. Here is my second try:

The client’s response- It’s perfect! Just leave out the girl….

Total time spent on two versions of an ad with a girl wearing a halter top - around an hour and a half. Number of girls wearing a halter top in the final ad - zero. Time wasted? Around an hour and a half.

This happens here a lot. It tends to destroy whatever creative streak I’ve managed to eek out of my soul while doing this job. Lame.

That’s all. more soon.