By: Tara Langdon
We were lucky to have the amazing Matthu Placek as our photographer. His body of work is exceptional and we were thrilled to work with him. It was a wild, messy and exciting photo-shoot process! After the actual shoot itself we were all very anxious and excited to see what we had created and when we got the final images from Matthu, we were ecstatic. The next step was to choose our favorite shots to represent each month. Then, whoever was featured in that set of shots for that month had to look at the different options and pick the one that they felt captured the full expression of the body and the themes of the month.
Once we had all our pictures chosen, we started working with the designer and printer for our calendar, Kevin Robertson and Martin Alter. They are both professionals in their field and have been making calendars with the seniors for the past few years. Since they’ve done this a few times they really helped us prioritize what needed to be done first so we could be quick and efficient. They really listened to our ideas about what we wanted the calendar to look like and agreed with our vision. They loved the photos and were extremely excited to get to work on creating the final product; and so were we!
Once we had all our pictures chosen, we started working with the designer and printer for our calendar, Kevin Robertson and Martin Alter. They are both professionals in their field and have been making calendars with the seniors for the past few years. Since they’ve done this a few times they really helped us prioritize what needed to be done first so we could be quick and efficient. They really listened to our ideas about what we wanted the calendar to look like and agreed with our vision. They loved the photos and were extremely excited to get to work on creating the final product; and so were we!
Months before the shooting date, we formed a small calendar design team consisting of Blake Krapels, Austin Goodwin and myself. Our job was to be the liaison between the class and designers. We frequently held meetings with Kevin and Martin to brainstorm ideas and to keep them in the loop about our class’s ideas and hopes for the project. One of the specifics that we discussed, with regards to the general aesthetic of the calendar, was that we knew we wanted the font for each date to be large enough so that it could be easily read from a distance as well as capture the essence and personality of our class, but not overpower the actual image.
This process went through many different and multi-faceted phases before we settled on the idea that is the final product. We held many class meetings and informal discussions weeks before the shoot to pin down some of the specifics of what we knew we wanted to accomplish. At first, we had the idea of bringing the outside elements in. We wanted to have leaves, water and sand to represent seasonal change. After some discussion we decided it would be easier, for shooting purposes, to have another way to express the seasons in our calendar. That’s when we thought color and movement would be a great way to showcase the feeling of the month and the season it’s in.
When it came to the general aesthetic of the calendar, we all agreed that we wanted the design layout to mirror the themes associated with each month. For example, December would be a cold blue to show winter. We decided to take the color scheme of the photo and the season it was representing and reflect it subtly throughout the month’s layout.
We wanted to create a calendar that was a piece of artwork. Even if someone doesn’t dance we hope they can see the beauty in the seasonal colors and shapes of all the images. We all put a lot of hard work and passion into this project and are thrilled with the result. The calendars will be on sale during the run of New Dances, December 10th-14th, in the Peter Jay Sharp lobby. If you are unable to make it to the show, visit here, for more information on how you can purchase a calendar.
This process went through many different and multi-faceted phases before we settled on the idea that is the final product. We held many class meetings and informal discussions weeks before the shoot to pin down some of the specifics of what we knew we wanted to accomplish. At first, we had the idea of bringing the outside elements in. We wanted to have leaves, water and sand to represent seasonal change. After some discussion we decided it would be easier, for shooting purposes, to have another way to express the seasons in our calendar. That’s when we thought color and movement would be a great way to showcase the feeling of the month and the season it’s in.
When it came to the general aesthetic of the calendar, we all agreed that we wanted the design layout to mirror the themes associated with each month. For example, December would be a cold blue to show winter. We decided to take the color scheme of the photo and the season it was representing and reflect it subtly throughout the month’s layout.
We wanted to create a calendar that was a piece of artwork. Even if someone doesn’t dance we hope they can see the beauty in the seasonal colors and shapes of all the images. We all put a lot of hard work and passion into this project and are thrilled with the result. The calendars will be on sale during the run of New Dances, December 10th-14th, in the Peter Jay Sharp lobby. If you are unable to make it to the show, visit here, for more information on how you can purchase a calendar.