I recently listened to a fascinating and inspiring interview with legendary designer Vaughan Oliver on an episode of Design Matters with Debbie Millman.

Millman and Oliver talk for a while about his iconic work for the 4AD record label, for which he has designed albums covers for bands like the Pixies, Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, Throwing Muses, Lush, Mountain Goats, and many many more.

Oliver steers the conversation towards the use of photography in his designs, specifically about the Pixies and their album covers.

Designs by Vaughan Oliver

Oliver worked with photographer Simon Larbalestier on most or all of the Pixies albums. Oliver declares Larbalestier “the fifth Pixie” because his photography, especially his personal work, jives so well with the band and the essence of their music.

Photos © Simon Larbalestier

Vaughan the goes on to talk about collaborating with photographers:

Generally when I work with photographers I give them a lot of space. Half the job is done if you choose the right photographer. And then I’ll kind of work with that photographer, identify aspects of [their] work that I like, that I think fits with the music.

A lot of photographers that I’ve worked with have one foot in the art camp, have one foot in the commercial camp, and they have a lot of kind of personal work. Where are you going in your personal work? Where would you like to go next with it? Can you see it relating to this music?

I’m not [the] kind of an art director that stands over the top of a photographer and looks over his shoulder and directs him, but has the confidence in the first instinct to go with that photographer’s own aesthetic.

Getting hired for our aesthetics, instincts, and vision is what each of us strives for no matter what kind of art we create. Awesome.

Find out more about designer Vaughan Oliver, listen to the interview on Design Matters with Debbie Millman (which is a great show you should be listening to every week anyways), and view more work by Simon Larbalestier.

And of course, always listen to the Pixies.

BBDO New York created and just released a series of print ads for the flooring company Armstrong. Each ad was photographed by Norman Jean Roy and features celebrity look-a-likes to emphasize their It only looks like the real thing tag line.

From Advertolog.com:

The campaign uses the theme “It only looks like the real thing” to show the upscale appearance and quality of Armstrong’s laminate floors. To highlight the theme, each execution features professional look-a-likes for well-known celebrities Lucille Ball, James Dean and Marlin Brando.

The photography is beautiful, natural, impeccably produced, and right in line with Roy’s style. Check out more of Roy’s work here.

One of the greatest validations of what we do as artists and creatives is having an agency, design firm, marketing department, or a publication bring you on for a project or an assignment based of your style of work. It’s happened to me and it feels great. And I love seeing it happen to others.

Photographer Richard Renaldi has a distinct style: very natural, solemn, and sensitive. Especially with his photographs of people.

© Richard Renaldi

© Richard Renaldi

© Richard Renaldi

Renaldi recently wrapped up working on a campaign for Microsoft and McCann (the ad agency) that is all him.

Microsoft ads photographed by Richard Renaldi

On his blog Renaldi writes:

In the end I am so happy…that [Microsoft/McCann] produced an entire advertising campaign of real people in eight by ten large format with all natural light- all extremely rare and unusual in this business especially in the digital age.

What’s even better is that they chose Renaldi to photograph it based on his style and vision, which is making photographs of “real people in eight by ten large format with all natural light.”

It’s a perfect example of good things coming your way when you stay true to your vision, are honest with and about your work, and make it your own way.

Poster by MODE for AIGA Charlotte

AdCharlotte.com points us to a super-cool poster the folks at MODE designed for an upcoming AIGA Charlotte event with designer Stefan Sagmeister.

Sagmeister is on the road plugging and talking about his book Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far and will be doing just that here in Charlotte on April 21, 2008.

About the poster:

For [Stefan Sagmeister's] lecture tour stop in Charlotte, the AIGA was in need of a poster promoting the event. Inspired by the spirit of social discovery in Stefan’s book, MODE asked various individuals around the city to share some of their own personal maxims, which were captured in their very handwriting. The individuals were chosen at random and photographed over a 10-day period at 30 different locations around the city. They represent a variety of ages, social statuses, races, professions, religious beliefs, and life experiences. The final piece was elevated to greater social level and beyond design circles, having a reciprocal relationship between the city of Charlotte and Stefan.

Cheers to designer/photographer Maxim Vakhovskiy for the great photos.

Photo by Diane Arbus

Susan Sontag with her son David Rieff photographed by Diane Arbus in 1965.

Rieff writing about Sontag in his recent book Swimming in a Sea of Death:

“If I don’t believe in my own work,” she once said to me after one of her books had received a particularly disdainful review from a writer who made much of how seriously my mother took herself, “why should anyone else?”

© Armando Bellmas

Musician Ken Vandermark is the subject of an aptly titled television program called Musician. I stumbled upon this show recently on the Ovation cable network. It was great to catch a glimpse of Vandermark at work, at home, and on the road.

Vandermark is devoted to his craft, true to his vision, and is driven to make it successful both creatively and professionally. He’ll always be an important figure in my own creative/professional endeavors (especially since he was one of my first “clients” way back at the beginning).

Play on, KV.

The Vandermark 5 “Aperture (For Walker Evans)” (6:45)
from A Discontinuous Line

I recently read Brian Morton’s novel Starting Out In The Evening and was struck by this passage on “the glory of choosing your own life, even when it takes ruthlessness to do it.”

You seize your freedom in a spirit of rebelliousness, exuberance, defiant joy. But to live that choice — over the weeks and months and years to come — requires different qualities. It requires that you turn hard, turn rigid. Because it isn’t a choice that the world encourages, you have to wear a suit of armor to defend it.

© Joshua Wildman

I first got turned on to Joshua Wildman’s photos a few years ago via The FADER. This photo is from a recent post on his blog JOSHUAWILDMANGOODTIMES and is accompanied by the following caption:

i don’t know who made this poster, but i look at it everyday in my living room and it makes me feel good

Indeed.

I go back and forth about posting work by other photographers on this blog. The primary reason I do it is to show work that influences me and pushes my own work forward. (See here and here.)

I always come back to an old Cuban saying my Mom and my grandmother Mimi use to tell me all the time — in Spanish, of course — while I was growing up:

Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres.

This is literally translated as “Tell me with whom you walk and I will tell you who you are” and loosely translated as “A man is known by the company he keeps”.

I’ve always been a little suspect of the phrase. Just because I keep the company of a certain person doesn’t mean that I am like that person or that their ways are mine. However, that may still be the rebellious kid in me bucking the parental wisdom.

The funny thing is that I keep coming back to that proverb every time I consider posting the work of influential photographers and artists on this blog. It’s as if a part of me truly believes the proverb to hold some truth.

I’m thrilled that I can find and wax rhapsodical about connections between people that inspire me and my own creative process. Making and finding meaning in those connections pushes me to be more passionate about my work and my life.

So yeah, I will likely continue to post influential work alongside my own work around here. My influences and inspirations are the company I keep. I couldn’t be more proud to walk with them.

Andrea, Catalina Beach © Baldomero Fernandez

This photograph by Baldomero Fernandez has been a favorite of mine for a few years now. It, along with much of Baldomero’s work, has been an inspiration and a guidepost for my own work.

There’s a sense of tension and mystery in this photo. The telephone appears to play a significant role in the story. However, the woman’s gaze is not on the phone itself but on something beyond the camera’s view.

Is someone coming towards or looking back at her? Is she staring off into space, lost in a thought, thinking whether she should call or not? Is the phone ringing, the woman choosing to look away and ignore it?

This photograph makes me want to linger for a while. It makes me want to know more about it. And, most importantly, it makes me want to create photographs that have a similar impact.