Aw shucks!

I won some awards! While I hate tooting my own horn, my mom says I should share this.

I was thrilled to receive an AAF Gold Addy for my Making of a Museum book design. Much to my surprise and delight, the book also won a Best of Bay award for Sales and Marketing… for which I was presented a very heavy glass trophy.

It was such a pleasure working with the staff and volunteers at the Tampa Museum of Art on this project.

Another one I forgot to mention was the AAF Silver Addy I was awarded in 2020 for my Kreindler Law brochure design. That piece was years in the making and I also did most of the photography. Here’s that piece:

Kreindler Photography and Brochure Design

Sometimes you just have to go the extra mile… and occasionally you’ve got to go a lot of extra miles. I started working on this folio/brochure for Kreindler Law in New York back in 2017. After three visits to their offices in Manhattan, as well as two location shoots at airports in the area, the photographs were ready. The Creative Director on this project was very clear in that he didn’t just want run-of-the-mill lawyer headshots… he wanted to convey the passion of the lawyers at Kreindler… he wanted carefully crafted portraits. Attention to detail was key, from helicopters and planes as props (many of the Kreindler lawyers are pilots), as well as Oliphant backdrops (you might have seen those same backdrops in Annie Leibovitz portraits) to set the mood.

The folio for this project was meticulously assembled by Henry+Co outside of Atlanta, GA. No detail was too small, from embossed foil to the magnetic enclosure.

INSIDE OUT St. Petersburg

I was so excited to be asked to participate in this very special project… which culminated in 300 large scale portraits wheat-pasted on this building (future location of The Factory in the Warehouse Arts District). This was the site of the Shine Mural Festival finale party on October 26th. Read more about the INSIDE OUT project here.

It was so cool to see the overwhelming support from the community. Hundreds of people came out to have their portraits taken by one of the four photographers involved (myself, Michelle Tannu, Rashad Hobson and Maria Flanagan), with several volunteers helping out behind the scenes… the most daunting task being wheat pasting all 300 posters to the exterior of the building. Two full days of hot and sweaty work. The finished work looks amazing!

I photographed 140 subjects over the course of 2 days at Mize Gallery.

Pretty Vacant: New works by Todd Bates & Selina Roman

Very excited about my upcoming show, along with Selina Roman, at Mize Gallery in St. Petersburg this September. I have recently launched a flatstock studio, which has been solely dedicated to producing new work for this show… like Everything is Fine pictured above. I’ve decided to get away from straight photography when it comes to my sign obsession (see vintageneonproject.com and @vintageneonproject), instead taking a gig-poster approach. Professionally I am both a photographer and graphic designer, so it’s a natural fit for me. Check out the Facebook event page for more details.

Squatch on the Box!

I was thrilled when I got the invitation to be a part of the 2018 Shine St. Pete Mural Festival’s Corner Canvas exhibit. Power boxes all over the city feature the work of local artists. Turns out I had just finished shooting an image for my @groverkrantz series in front of one of St. Pete’s iconic banyan trees. I paired that image with the one you see above that was shot on the shore of Lake Maggiore. If you find yourself driving around St. Pete and find yourself near the intersection of 1st Ave N and 8th St. N (in front of Overflow Brewing).

Literary Carousel at the MFA

On Thursday, April 19th, I will be hosting the 2nd annual Literary Carousel at the MFA. This is a really fun hybrid of the Carousel series where, instead of having photographers presenting their work, we pull sets of images from the extensive archives at the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg and pair them with local writers. Those writers, in turn, have fun crafting a story or poem inspired by the photos. At the event, they will read along to the slideshow. Last year's event was a hoot and we think this one will be too. Hope to see you there!

Whoa!

Last year I was approached to design the cover for a little book about... sloths. I love sloths as much as the next guy, so I took on the assignment and designed this super-cute cover. Recently I checked in to see how the book was doing, so I headed over to the Inkshares website, where I was pleasantly surprised to see that Slothlove has sold over 104,000 copies! Wow.

The James Museum: Part I

I've been working on some exciting projects for The James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art, a wonderful new addition to the St. Petersburg museum scene. 

I just received copies of this book I designed for the museum featuring selected works from their collection. I'm so thrilled they trusted me with this cover treatment, which I am so in LOVE with! The lobby of the museum is covered in beautiful sandstone tile, so I pitched the idea of having the book evoke that same look. Sorry to geek out, but the cover is a textured stock and we went all out with a multi-level emboss treatment on the logo. It all came together quite nicely! Huge thanks to Designer's Press (especially Shelley Manes) for all the hard work and hustle to get this book done on time! 

The museum has a soft opening starting Saturday, April 7th. The collection is amazing, go check it out!

St. Petersburg Pier demolition timelapse

On a bike ride the other day, I saw that the new pier is coming along nicely. It got me thinking back on this timelapse I shot of the old pier's demolition:

The St. Petersburg Inverted Pyramid Pier was demolished in late 2015 to make way for new construction. This time-lapse video documents that demolition, at various stages, from September 19th through December 31st. 

Awards!

Was thrilled to hear that Todd Bates Creative won an ADDY award for the Morean Arts Center anniversary book. I worked with a great team on this book: photographer Beth Reynolds and author Clint Page. The book is a celebration of the Morean's 100 year history (you can pick one up at their gift shop). 

When Shelley Manes from Designer's Press dropped off the ADDY Awards book for me this morning, she also passed on an award I won in 2016 for a brochure I designed and shot for Schiller's Reclaimed Wood. I received an Award of Excellence from the Florida Print Awards Competition. 

Not a bad start to the day!