Dimepiece is an edgy, irreverent clothing company headquartered in a sunny fifth floor office in Downtown LA. One look around the office will reveal that the company is completely run by women. The place is girl power city. Also, Ashley Jones' (co-owner) office is worthy of it's own blog post because it has everything you never thought you wanted in it. Here's a product shoot I did recently for the brand with the amazing Tavia Bonetti. This girl, you guys, is so good.
ILLUSTRATIONS
When I was little I thought I was the best draw-er in the world, mostly because grandma told me I was.
She also told me I was the fairest in the land. Turns out I'm not everything grandma told me I was but at least she encouraged me as a young creative kid to keep going.
I haven't really drawn anything since i was young but I had the idea of sketching some illustrations for a TYPICAL Magazine piece that was just too beautifully written for photographs. I teamed up with Mark Torres and we made these illustrations based on the imagery in this story by Ashley Soto.
WWIM12 x THE LINE HOTEL
Twice a year Instagram encourages users all over the world to step out from behind their phones and meet each other in person.
I wasn't sure if I'd have to time to host one this year but at the last minute things worked out. For the 12th Worldwide Instameet, LA photographer Ray Neutron, blogger/graphic designer Anna Jepson and I partnered with one of my favorite places in LA, The Line Hotel, for an intimate rooftop evening meet in Koreatown. A huge shoutout to the Line for the last minute accommodations and thank you to everyone who came out for the #staycationmeet.
PARTICIPANTS
and a huge thank you to @thelinehotel AND @instagram
FRIENDS ARE MODELS TOO x TYPICAL MAG
Our normal friends turned into models with some direction from TYPICAL's creative director, Jessi Noel.
A few weeks ago we sent out the call for friends who were willing but didn't have to be models. Four (plus a few friends and significant others) showed up bright and early on a Saturday. We made a makeshift backdrop—that to my dismay fell down a few times on our model—and then watched magic unfold. Our normal friends turned into models with some direction from TYPICAL's creative director, Jessi Noel.
TECHNICALLY SPEAKING:
When you are starting your own magazine with your friends, there is zero budget for studio space or new equipment. Here's how we made do with what we had already. We used a suede gray paper seamless (these run about $40 on Craigslist), taped up on the wall (trust you me, I bought a backdrop stand also off Craiglist the minute I got home from this shoot), a reflector ($20-40 on amazon) on a stand, and a flash tethered to the camera. Even though it was daylight, I underexposed on my camera and let the flash be the light source, positioned to the right for a dramatic look. Here's the result: