I just finished processing the images from my latest photoshoot.  C.T. Hsu + Associates needed images of their prototype Fire Station designed for Orange County.  Fire Station 35 is located on the quieter side of town by Windermere.  While the weather wasn’t the greatest – the clouds moving through had a few breaks in them to allow for some nice images.

Jason Frazier (www.frazierfoto.com) and I recently did an interior photo shoot at the Serenity Towers in the gulf side community of South Pasadena.  The facility is an independent living senior high rise which was recently renovated.  You can view more photos on my Flickr page.

The time is coming when we say goodbye to this year and move on to the next.  For me this always means holiday items for my clients.  For the past few years I’ve been designing the holiday calendar for C.T. Hsu + Associates, which is their way of reaching out to their clients and presenting their work.  For me, it’s always fun to explore different gradients of colors and how they interact with the different images.

You can view some of the previous calendars on my blog:

• 2009 Calendar
• 2008 Calendar
• 2007 Calendar

First, we have the logo.  Several months ago I was tasked with recreating their seal.  The only items they had were a crude photocopied logo on some old documents.   After several iterations the final design was approved.  It incorporated both a book and an image of the state, both of which pay homage to the group’s audience.  The blue color complements the metallic gray around the logo as well as the light gold of the book.

The next phase of the project was to develop the overall theme for the conference.  CT had several ideas and he wanted to incorporate several Florida images to help attract people to what we offer.  One of the first items developed was the preliminary program which incorporated the blue of the logo, and started building the standard fonts and graphics that would follow through the project.  From here, the artwork was handed over to the Valencia Community College team who built the save the date and sponsorship brochures before it was passed back to me.

The final phase of the project included making the support items for the conference.  These included the name badges, tote bags, award certificates, podium signs, banners, pop-up displays, gala programs, award trophies and many other items.  NGI provided many of the large format items as well as the printing of the programs.    Overall, it was a significant undertaking in a short amount of time, but with a good schedule everything was able to be completed on-time and the event was a success.  Marisha and I attended the awards gala, which had a nice dinner and some really good entertainment.  And to top it off I was awarded a certificate of appreciation (which I happened to create for myself earlier)!

Kira, originally uploaded by Tom Smalling Photography & Design.

This weekend I played good husband for the wife and helped her friend Kira with some portraits to build her professional portfolio. Kira has a wonderful personality and is very warm and friendly, and if things go well you’ll see her at the next conference helping companies sell their products. Also, I have to give thanks to Jason Frazier who loaned me one of his flash units. If you’d like to see more from the photoshoot, please check out my Flickr page.