Grass seed...

How long can I possibly spend on an image tweaking it and saturating it, applying auto-contrast, sharpening it. Here it is after all that au naturel. Final decision. Reminds me (in a different way) of a menu (first time) I designed for an 80th birthday dinner that started off as a contemporary full A4 page abstract thingo intended to cover the front and back page of an A5-book menu ...and after six weeks of working on it every day, I emerged with a final design that certainly represented a lot of work on fonts, layout and a proferred choice between only two colours, but irony ...a graphic balanced casually snug to the top right hand side of the letter 'u' of Menu. The final art work filled a space hardly more than 3cms by 3 cms. I was over the moon about it as a finished product, but the blood, sweat and tears, the 'carving' and 'slicing', colour changes, fill and line I put in and took out. The client loved it. He took a photo of the menu alongside one presentation plate of every dish he cooked of a banquet to show me how perfectly the design complemented his work.

The next I did for the same client, I challenged myself (and told the client I would) design and execute in 1 hour from beginning to finish inclusive graphic, fonts, layout, paper, printed and delivered. As I then read the menu for the first time, I opted straight off for gold on gold. Let it never be said I have lived a risk free life:) The client (a well qualified chef) had told me I wouldn't deliver it on time (noooo, he said with a chuckle still you'd better). He loved it. Again, I got the product on the table and another job. Those were the days.

Well, I love this capture in the same way I enjoyed scaling those heights. This is the ridgy-didge of artistic expression. My bees knees, I'm happy. Now I need to challenge myself to one day soon go out, shoot, tweak if needed and upload a blip in 15 minutes tops:) Wow. Getting there. :)