After my internship ended I was hired as a night desk sports editor and got my first taste of layout. There are a surprising amount of rules that to be considered in layout in terms of flow and what you want your audience to take away from your publication. It is easy to be caught up in an amazing design but produce something that is disorganized or confusing. From fonts to image size and resolution, every night at the sports was an awesome learning experience. Working the sports desk is one of my favorite jobs that I have ever had (right under movie projectionist) but the graveyard shift was not for me.

So I moved on to the Community Newspaper Company (now Gatehouse Media) as a Pagination and Prepress Technician where I did less editing and more layout and design. At CNC I switched from the news of one section to laying out advertisements and designing whole publications. I produced 18 weekly newspapers for towns and cities in MA, meeting about 12 deadlines a day. This was an interesting position because even though the publications were for the same company, every town was independent and each editor had separate requirements and expectations for their paper. Here I got to work with, and more importantly learn from, design experts such as Kate Dempsey Knowlton, Jason Angel, and John Lockwood, who are all insanely talented.

At this point I knew for sure that I wanted a career in publication and technology. So I went back to school for Photography (which changed my life and perspective completely) and became educated on the best lighting practices, the best Photoshop techniques, event shooting, studio design and management, digital story telling, digital work flow and file management, etc … Although I no longer work for the media I have not stopped designing and paginating. Now I temper my photo skills with layout for musician album design, flash videos, web design, photo album design, and flyers and advertisements. Also I layout publications for organizations like Friends of the Fells and volunteer my services for non-profit organizations like the Point After Club. Below are a few samples of work that I have done. Enjoy!

Jason, Neil, and Greg are so talented and each of them brings their own unique humor and personality in a collaborative environment serving commercial and creative videography/editing needs. Jason and Neil have performed in stage productions throughout the Boston area. Greg is an aspiring fiction writer. Together they write, direct, produce and perform in numerous films and shorts as well as service the wedding and event industries.

Here are their head shots:

I look forward to working with them again soon!

The White Roses is the musical project of Heather Rose, a blues-rock-psychedelic-funk band coming out of Boston.  Heather writes her own songs, sings and plays guitar. She also co-produces and co-engineers all of White Roses’ recordings. In 2010 she graduated with a degree in Professional Music from the Berklee College of Music, focusing on Songwriting, Performance, Business and Engineering. In 2009 her song “Big City Blues” won first place for blues in the West Coast Songwriter’s Competition. White Roses are currently signed under the indie label Retro Rocket Records located in Half Moon Bay, CA. Check out her work at http://www.whiterosesrock.com/

Erin doubled the rent in 1 shoot.

It was a closet. Well bigger.  But it was small.  It was also less than a 5 minutes walk from our apartment.  It was just a few months.  But it was great.  We had a place to leave things setup so a shoot didn’t always include setup and break down.   Erin put her name on the waiting list.

About 3 years later she got the call.  The studios have opened a new floor so space had opened up.  We looked at a few of the studios and really liked ours.  So, we’re back in Somerville at Vernon Street Studios. What’s nice about working an industrial space is that we get to do pretty much anything.  It’s also rough because we took over a space after years of painters it would seem.  Hardened piles of paint, dust, grime, dust, plaster dust and more.   After a bunch of coats paint, a few trips to furniture shops, some pulleys, paper stuffed mini-car and more than one near ladder death experiences, we finished hanging the lights as we opened the doors (and after an all nighter… I thought those ended in college).

Check out the photo gallery of us making the most of our space.  We’d like to give a special thanks to my parents and Noah Bidgood for helping out building the place.

-jk

Dudelmation #1 – Shjunior Year from Abbott Imaging.

We are currently working on a music video for one of our new songs.  About a year ago I drew this animation on a black board using a chalk pen and Erin photographed it.

Tonight we decided to dust off the files and finish the test up to start prepping for the real video.  Erin added some flash on top of the hand drawings and then we started adding sound.

Thanks to Knowah for all his wonderful help.

Also.. On an unrelated subject. Finally saw the movie Up.

Wow.

Hope all is well,

-jk

Thanks to Knowah for all the help (noises & data!)

Dudelmation #1 – Shjunior Year from Abbott Imaging.

Happy New Year!

Erin

We have decided to open during the annual open studios event.   Open studios showcases over 60  local artists.  Please come and support local art.  you’ll get a chance to see the work of other artists who work at Vernon street.  There will be snacks.

www.vernonstreet.com

Open Studios November 7-8