I wrapped up at Colle+McVoy last week and the Yearbook Yourself 2009 site should be up any minute now. I can’t wait to do my own portrait and put it up on Facebook. I think I’ll do one from the 50s or 60s. Or maybe the 70s, because the glasses and hair were so great back then. Oh, I’ll probably do them all and change them every few days. Why not?

And so now I turn my attention to Hazelden, where I am working with the fabulous duo, Dawn Carlson and Teri Ryan once again. This time an invitation for an event for writers in L.A., as well as Hazelden’s graduate school case statement. Both wonderful creative projects that I’m very excited to be getting started on!

I’m also working with ICMA-RC on their benefits enrollment materials again this year, which is fabulous because that means I’m teamed up with Jan Irwin and Vanessa Waller-Jones, who are both just a dream to work with. And there’s always a nice little bit of creativity involved as well, in the form of a logo design for the year’s theme. This year it’s “Wellness Works.”

Will post examples of everything once available …

Update 7/21/09: And the site is live!

In addition to my freelance work, I also work for The Creative Group, which is a staffing agency for creatives. I like it because even when the project at hand is something pretty familiar to me, it’s always with new people and in a new place, and after 18-odd years of being in this line of work, that keeps things interesting.

But occasionally TCG will send me on an assignment that’s just pure, unabashed fun. Last time it was to a balloon factory to familiarize myself with the product so I could do some renderings. This time, it was to Colle+McVoy, a Minneapolis marketing agency that just won a Webby award for their development of the Yearbook Yourself website.

I had seen these yearbook photos around on Facebook and such and did wonder where people were getting them. Now I know! And I’m working with some very nice folks at C+M to create new templates for the 2009 version of the site. These are the templates based on old yearbook pics into which people will insert their photos to create the retro looks. It’s super fun, especially when you take friends’ and family’s pics and retro-ize them. I often end up chuckling to myself throughout the day as I’m working on this.

I don’t have a date for the 2009 site launch, but you can sign up here to be notified when it happens.

Update: I’ve finished my work on this project, and they are wrapping things up at Colle+McVoy the latter part of this week. The site launches the week of the 20th! Check it out! There are some great new images, and some nice additions this year that make the end result even more convincing and fun.

Over the years I’ve been asked occasionally to show examples of previous Photoshop work, including image manipulation and retouching. So I threw together a mini-portfolio for that purpose.

I have expert-level Photoshop skills, which include:

• retouching
• custom pattern work
• complete knowledge of layer and path tools
• special filter effects
• color correction
• optimization for web or print

And a background in illustration and drawing helps me to render images that are convincing, with no telltale marks of manipulation.

Product display renderings | Anagram International

This company wanted to pitch a new display concept to a nationally known drugstore chain. I created this mockup for the pitch using existing product images and my own photos of Anagram’s display equipment and the drugstore interior.

Image retouching & manipulation | Terris, Barnes and Walters

Custom imagery for a political campaign piece. I removed existing embossing and added the poison sign in the same style.

Image retouching & manipulation | Working Assets

I removed the background, created a clipping path, retouched the screen and color corrected.

Image retouching & manipulation | Terris, Barnes and Walters

This stock image showed a rooster instead of a hen, which didn’t fit with our message. I brought in a hen and brightened the egg slightly. (I also created the typography.)

Illustrations | BI

My client on this project designs employee incentive and rewards programs for other businesses. A trip to the Caribbean was the pitch to this major sewing and embroidery machine manufacturer. We went with a Pirates of the Caribbean theme for the trip, so I dressed up the presentation materials with custom spot illustrations using an embroidered effect created in Photoshop.

Image retouching & manipulation | Working Assets

I replaced the screen with the GUI from a different phone and added the photo.