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As part of the Philharmonic development campaign, I created six that ran on the programs’ back cover in the 2012–2013 season.
October & November 2012: “Be Our Lifeline” (focus on December 4′s Colorado Gives Day)
December 2012: ”Extend the holiday warmth throughout our community.”
February 2013: “Be Our Valentine.”
March 2013: “Be Our Lucky Charm”
and
April 2013: “Help Us Grow”
The Denver Philharmonic Orchestra has been around the metro area since 1948 and relies on donations for essential items such as:
• Rental of rehearsal and performance space KPOF Hall where the DPO has been playing for 49 years
• Renting music for all concerts
• Funding of the annual Young Artists Masterclass Concerto Competition
• Printing (my) programs for each concert
• Complimentary tickets to young adults in Big Brothers/Big Sisters programs
Concert tickets cover only about 35% of the Philharmonic’s costs, so donations from people like you are instrumental to the Denver Philharmonic. There is no paid administrative staff and DPO musicians play for the love of classical music and the joy it brings to our community.
This has been about six months in the making, so I am pleased to finally present the National Center for Learning Disabilities Annual Report 2012!
The 48-page report is styled to resemble a magazine layout giving the reader an opportunity to read one ‘story’ at a time.
You can read the report in all its glory here.
The Colorado Supreme Court, University of Colorado Law School, University of Denver Sturm College of Law, the Association of Corporate Counsel – Colorado Chapter, Center for Legal Inclusiveness, Law Week Colorado and Gibson Arnold and Associates launched a survey aimed at addressing job satisfaction and salaries within Colorado’s legal community.
Leading the creative and art direction of this campaign with my design team, we created a series of six ads that spoke to both salary and satisfaction. The secondary taglines that were used on social media was, “How does your salary look?” and “What does your money say?”
I’m excited to release the artwork for my first full-season brand — Fabrefaction Theatre Company’s 2012–2013 season. Branded as FTC’s “American Season,” the ’12–’13 season takes Atlanta theatre-goers on a journey through what being an American is all about. Using four colors — red, white, blue, gold (and black) — each poster is based on typographic folksy fair and Americana posters.
Along with these five “Professional Season” productions are four “Young Artist Series” — plays and musicals that give students of all ages the chance to perform. The YAS uses the same colors, but with strong vector icons to represent the individual productions.
More from Fabrefaction…
Art Direction, FTC, Illustration, Marketing Materials, Posters, Theatre,
Added on September 17, 2012
The “Young Artist Series” at Fabrefaction Theatre Company gives student of all ages a chance to perform and be involved with the Atlanta theatre community.
The 2012–2013 professional season is based on what it means to be an American. That brand carried over into the YAS artwork utilizing the same colors as the professional series’ artwork. To be more kid-friendly, each show features a vector icon illustration to represent the individual production.
More from Fabrefaction…
For the past six months, I have been working with the National Center for Learning Disabilities on this report and I am excited to finally be able to launch it into the world.
In my initial meeting with Director of Development Kevin Hager back in October, we discussed how NCLD’s 2011 annual report could be more readable than those in the past. Some of the previous reports “read like a Hemmingway novel” and consequently, no one digested the content. I pitched to Kevin that we could format this year’s report like a magazine—keep the articles short and use a lot of large, full-color artwork to draw readers into the material. Each section of content is formatted like an editorial story with a headline and artwork to match. The print version is printed on a high-gloss, high-quality, magazine stock. The idea behind the visual report was to keep the reading light; NCLD donors are parents—and on top of that—women, or mothers, whose reading schedules might be limited to a few minutes of a magazine here and there.
The 48-page report is downloadable here. Or on NCLD’s website here.
Art Direction, Circuit Media, Mexico, Photography, practical, Publication Design, Travel,
Added on May 9, 2012
Shortly after I started working at Law Week Colorado, the CEO of Circuit Media announced that she was in the planning stages of a company service trip to Mexico. A few months later, we found ourselves on a hot, sweaty bus ride from Puerto Vallarta to the small town of Bucerias.
From Bucerias, we met up with men and women working at a nonprofit called PEACE Mexico. They toured the Circuit Media team around the area of Punta de Mita showing us the tangible results of the work they have been doing for years.
When we returned to Denver in November of last year a few shades darker than when we were when we left, I started thumbing through the hundreds of photos that I took while we were down in Nayarit. I found myself drawn to all of the color and texture that Mexico had to offer. From those images, I based my concept for the 2010 Annual Report—a kind of tactile vibrance that PEACE brings to the area. Independently, I designed the entire 96-page report using supplied copy and my own photographs, as well as additional photos by Jamie Cotten, Elizabeth Lloyd Photography, Nikhol Esteras Roberts and Nova Pennison.
To download the entire pdf report, click here.
© PEACE Mexico, Circuit Media
View more of my Mexico photos here.
For this year’s Super Lawyers cover, Law Week’s Sarah Overbeck shot the photo on the roof at the Denver Athletic Club, and designer Amy Vanchina executed an architectural drawing of the skyline from the image. I then brought the photo and the drawing together, removed the photographic background and replaced the cityscape with an illustrative one. Layering on top of Vanchina’s sharp architectural lines, I loosely sketched the city, added watercolor and scribbled the Law Week banner.
In 2011, seven attorneys joined Law Week photographer Jamie Cotten and myself on the roof of the Lindsay-Flanigan Courthouse with a beautiful geometric city-scape behind them. Inspired by the first comic books of the 1930s, I then illustrated the image with an art-deco Americana style. Law Week masked the Super Lawyers and Rising Stars revealing their faces with the original photo inside the issue.
Two years ago, Law Week brought three Super Lawyers into the alley behind the Rocky Mountain Diner for an urban comic-book style photo shoot. I layered the photos with a half-tone pattern for my first Law Week cover which featured three images from the shoot in a comic-book-style story board.
More from Law Week…
The editorial focus for the March 12, 2012 issue of Law Week centered around employment and recruitment—including a feature story by editor Meg Satrom about law school graduates who aren’t currently practicing law, voluntarily or not.
Actress Amy Kersten clears tables in this photo taken by Law Week photographer Sarah Overbeck at Denver’s Appaloosa Grill. Acting as art director for the shoot and cover art, I researched images from Depression-era photographer Dorothea Lange to capture feelings of hopelessness and underemployment.
More from Law Week…
Art Direction, Marketing Materials, National Theatre Conservatory, Publication Design, Theatre,
Added on January 27, 2012
Upon graduation in May, the NTC Classes of 2011 and 2012 traveled from Denver to New York City to perform a showcase of work for directors, agents and casting directors. This program handed out to the attendees was a collaboration with photographer eric laurits.
More from the NTC…
As part of building the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra program each month (ish), I was also asked to design an ad for the back page of the book. Gold partner Thompson Creek Metals Company generously has supported the Philharmonic four years running. Thank you to TCMC for their continued support!
I conceptualized and executed this four-ad campaign with additional direction by Jeff Paul.
More from the Denver Philharmonic…
Please Take A Moment To Locate The Nearest Exit, Law Week Colorado, August 27, 2012
By David Forster
Our production day for Law Week is every Friday. I have to produce new and original cover art every week, which is always a challenge. As you might expect from a legal publication, the topic of the cover story is often not very visual.
On Wednesday afternoon of this particular week, I sat down with reporter David Forster and discussed his cover story for the week. He explained to me that the story was about damage control. After such horrific events such as the Aurora shooting right here in Colorado, it brought up a lot of issues in the corporate legal community about being prepared — for anything. Literally anything. David talked to me for a while about his story while I tried to visualize how this would look.
Having just flown home to Montana, my mind flashed to the airplane card in the seat back pocket instructing you to hold onto your seat cushion incase of a water landing — on a flight from Colorado to Montana. Worst case scenario. Prepare for anything.
With a cover due at the end of the day on Thursday, I didn’t have access to or time to access a model. So first thing the next morning, I burst into the sales office and forced account man Dan to pose for me. I shot a couple pics of him on my phone with him posing as a running man for an airplane exit-instruction illustration — I built the illustration the rest of the day.
Thanks to Dan for being such a good sport. I suppose that I owe you a drink for that.
More from Law Week…
Art Direction, National Theatre Conservatory, Photography, Posters, practical, Theatre,
Added on September 26, 2011
Eight one-wo/man shows under the umbrella title SOLO SHAKES at the NTC.
More from the NTC…
For the January 23, 2012 issue of Law Week, I collaborated with photographer Sarah Overbeck and actress Chiara Motley to create a cover image based on the street photography of artists such as Markus Hartel, Robert Doisneau and Vivian Maier. The editorial feature of the paper this week was focused on the lateral moves of attorneys in Denver in 2011.
After pulling research—both street photos and occupational-focused realism paintings such as Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère—I discussed with Sarah my concept for the shoot. I wanted the image to feel like a candid snapshot of Chiara deciding whether or not to leave her firm while the world around her kept moving.
The final image is a composite of about seven different photos that Sarah and I set up, shot and stitched together.
The first slide is the cover; click through for an image of the final photograph, and again to see the image in color.
More from Law Week…
Illustrated cover for white-collar crime edition of Law Week.
Despite calling a number of really nice Canadians to track down photos, we had no artwork to run with this story. Additional last-minute illustrations by myself and creative team made up the inside-artwork.
More from Law Week…
Feature story on marketing swag.
Art direction & hand coloring by Matthew Meier
Photo by Jamie Cotten
Model: Mandi Masden
More from Law Week…
Since 1926, Ireland Stapleton has represented Denver clients with an unsurpassed level of integrity, sophistication and insight. I created a mini-campaign for Ireland that ran in early 2012.
Photo by Sarah Overbeck. Art direction and design by Matthew Meier
A series of spec ads for that I created for national law firm Ryley Carlock & Applewhite.
The ads, which were submitted-for-approval but never ran in print, were part of a collection based on RCA’s environmental practice of law. Set to run of the back page of Law Week Colorado, the ads encouraged readers to recycle their newspapers so that it may be ‘reincarnated’ as a book with an environmental focus.
December 4, 2012 is Colorado Gives Day. All around the state, Coloradans will donate to nonprofits small and large. All donations that are given on December 4 are increased by the FirstBank Incentive Fund.
The Denver Philharmonic Orchestra has been around the metro area since 1948 and relies on donations for essential items such as:
• Rental of rehearsal and performance space KPOF Hall where the DPO has been playing for 49 years
• Renting music for all concerts
• Funding of the annual Young Artists Masterclass Concerto Competition
• Printing (my) programs for each concert
• Complimentary tickets to young adults in Big Brothers/Big Sisters programs
Concert tickets cover only about 35% of the Philharmonic’s costs, so donations from people like you are instrumental to the Denver Philharmonic. There is no paid administrative staff and DPO musicians play for the love of classical music and the joy it brings to our community.
You can donate any amount any time online on Dec. 4.
Thanks!
— MM
“I loved someone, too, and the person I loved I lost. […] He was a boy, just a boy, when I was a very young girl. […]
“I hurt him the way you’d like to hurt me, but you can’t. I’m not young and vulnerable any more. But my young husband was, and I — never mind about that.”
Model: Cassandra Engber
Model & Assistant: David Sherman
Photo by Matthew Meier
Special thanks to Cassandra, David, Carol Finley and the Dayton Theatre Guild in Dayton, Ohio.
“They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at — Elysian Fields.”
Model: Chiara Motley | Photo by Matthew Meier
F 4.5 | 1/100 | ISO 400
“Where is she?”
“She’s soaking in a hot tub to quiet her nerves. She’s terribly upset.”
