Snaps Folio: Smith Studios

SNAPS photography portfolio featuring images shot expressly for Smith Studios. Read more about this project and accompanying components in the previous post.

*** Click mini-viewer or cover image to launch full-size pdf viewer. ***

photography: Denis Zimmermann

FFZSA: Smith Studio Brand Package

What's FFZSA? Favorites From the Zimmermann Studio Archive, naturally.

The first installment in this series comes from a few years back, with a full suite of works created for the super people at Smith Studios. Proprietor Mike Smith runs a terrific imaging operation in San Diego, offering a full digital workflow of photographic, video and retouching services.

Ever the team player, Mike wanted his crew to feel fully represented, so for the logo we included a group. If you knew them, you might recognize their silhouettes. And for the brochure, we chose to simply share the authentic atmosphere in a journalistic, behind-the-scenes flavor. Over the span of a week, in studio and on location, I photographed working spaces while a real live project was underway (for Petco.) A key function of the brochure is its modularity. The pages are printed in-house and assembled with hand-pulled portfolios, selected specifically for appropriateness of inquiry.

The identity suite is also designed with maximum versatility in mind, featuring adhesive-backed, repeating-image label strips which are applied to the letterhead and envelopes as needed, on-the-fly.

Special thanks go out to Greg Burger for implementing the web component with skill and grace. And patience. Business cards were beautifully printed by Joel Green and team at L&L Printers, San Diego.

*** Custom portfolio of Snaps photography from this project will be available for your perusal in post immediately following.***

design & copy: Zimmermann Studio
photography: Snaps, Denis Zimmermann

Look Ma, No Ground!

A few posts ago, I shared a series of my photographs from the Spyder shoot in Aptos, California (where, incidentally, I spent a couple of glorious summers back in the late '70s.) I am happy now to present to you the finished Freeryde Summer 08 Look Book, featuring some very rad bike action and some very rad bike action gear, natch.

Once again, big thanks are going out to Frank Creative for bringing it all together, lead photographer Chris O'Connell and his crew, the marketing team at Spyder for their trust and support, Jeff Jenks for inspiration and words, and everyone else who worked hard and played hard for the duration of this project. Especially the riders.

Some ginormous number of these were printed. Look for them in these following mags and issues: Freeskier (Jan), Decline (Mar), Women's Adventure (Mar/Apr), and Mountain Bike Action (May).

***Click on mini-viewer or cover image to launch full-size viewer.***

design: Frank Creative + Zimmermann Studio // photography: Chris O'Connell + Denis Zimmermann // copywriting: Frank Creative + Jeff Jenks

In Search of Bookish

It's Book Fair time again in Seattle, and this year's poster is another bit of photo/graphic cleverness from Zimmermann Studio.

Of particular insider interest is how difficult it was to follow up my own design from last year, so well-received by many. One-offs are easy, series are hard. After floundering about in the world of ornamentation and dense illustration, I settled back into a smarter, more cerebral groove. Always "bookish", the client reminded me.

So how did I create it? I first shot the stack of books without covers, then created a visual guide by overlaying the type for positioning. I then printed the type block in black on plain white paper and made custom covers for each book, taking care to position the type using my visual guide. Then I re-stacked the books, shot the photo and removed all areas of duplicated, overlaying type.


typeface: housebroken clean, house industries // photography & design: Denis Zimmermann // ©2008 Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair