Princesses

These are not a new Skårt design ....although...... hmmm....

These are drawings for "my other job" -- Top secret, but I will share with YOU because I get to go back to Disneyland.  Woohoo!!! Shhhhh.  More pictures to come next week.

Working in Poland

What a way to ring in the New Year.  At the very last minute I got a call to design a commercial for a bank IN WARSAW!!! So on Dec 27th I headed out to Poland for two weeks of work (and a little bit of fun).  

They wanted something a long the line of the Amazon Kindle stop motion commercials.  It's always a bit of a challenge going someplace where you can't speak the language.  But through detailed drawings and complex hand gestures I was able to get across what I needed the Polish set building crew to accomplish. Below are some pics from the set. 

and of course -- a picture of me goofing around on the set:

I'm Going to Disneyland!!!

AND ... I am getting paid to go.

Yup that's right.  I have a shoot for the next three days that takes place IN Disneyland --- AFTERHOURS --- whoop whoop --- partay at Mickey's house!!! Well, actually we will be in Goofy's house but still ---

Haven't been this excited about working for Disney since I worked at the Disney Store --   Oh yah, nothing more thrilling at age 17 than stocking Plush Mountain!!!  Yes, I am a Disney geek!!! (shhhhh don't tell!) But there is a REALLY good story as to WHY I'm a Disney Geek (and a McDonalds lover) Someday maybe I will tell it.  But not right now, because I have to pack and make fake Ice Cream and get ready to go to DISNEYLAND  ----Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Hopefully more exciting tales to tell and pictures to share later in the week.

Oh No We Didn't

As you may know (if you read this blog often enough) aside from being an artist, my other job is a Production Designer for film, television and ads. This weekend I was helping some friends out by getting some of the set and props together for a short film they were shooting.  And for some reason I let them shoot part of this film at MY HOUSE.

First rule of film making. Never* shoot at your own house.
*unless you are getting a hefty location fee that can pay for any damages.

Although the husband was more reluctant than I was, we shot mostly outside, it was a small crew, and everyone was very respectful ie: no damages to report.  However, I have been reading this great blog Designwali and while the author has been away she has been featuring a brilliant series of guest posts with the theme "Oh No We Didn't".  The series involves a variety of professional designers writing in and revealing there home FAILS.  ie projects they started and didn't complete, furniture they purchased and immediately regretted or poor color choices that they just haven't bothered to fix.  It's a great reminder that I bet even Martha Stewart's home isn't perfect. 

So with this blog series on the brain, as I shuffled a bunch of people through my home my own "Oh No We Didn't" projects jumped out at me and I wondered if anyone else noticed them.  But instead of fixing the things that need fixing or trying to hide them I decided to share them with YOU.  

FAIL #1: The Last Hacked Curtain
When we moved in I found these great tone on tone striped curtains to match the paint color in the dining room.  The only problem is that I could only find 3 panels that were 84" long (the right length). So I bought one 96" panel to complete the wall with the full intent of cutting and hemming the last curtain to match.  Well.... life happened and I cut the curtain but never hemmed it.  So the last curatin remains with a poor hack job, strings fraying hanging in my dinging room.

FAIL #2: Those Stickers just won't come off!
We have these two arched nooks that are the perfect size for displaying  family photographs.  It took a visit from the parents to actually make me run out to the store and hastily buy frames in order to display said pictures.  I bought a bunch of cute frames at Ross (the best discount store on the planet).  But the best discount store on the planet also has the worlds stickiest price tags.   And for some reason they stick these tags right on the glass.  I got most of the stickers off but at some point I just gave up.  And now I still have a few frames with white sticker residue that needs goo gone and heavy arm scrubbing to get off.  It's been 4 years.  Maybe one day I will get around to it.  Or maybe I will just buy some new frames!

For more design "Oh No We Didn't" stories  check out Designwali's Blog.  Now it's your turn! What are your "oh no we didn't" secrets?

The Commerical We Made in Thailand

Contrary to what you thought, I didn't just go to Thailand to play with elephants and eat amazing food.  I did go to work.  In that time we made this gorgeous commercial.  Check it out:

Bah Humbug!

bah humbug bunting available at Bad Baby Quilts on Etsy

T'is the season --- to  pay way too much for airline tickets fa la la la la  -- isn't that how the song goes? 

Sigh...  I'm in a hum bug mood.  Booked our flights to see the families and as usual waited till the last minute and ended up paying 4x what it would normally cost any other time of year. 

I can't get into the holiday spirit.  

Maybe it's because I live in LA -- and christmas lights on palm trees just don't count?  

or maybe it's because I already spent July and August shoveling (fake) snow and decorating giant Christmas trees for "my other job" 

or maybe it's because I've been in "go" mode since the one of a kind show.  Not only am I trying to fill all my skårt orders before christmas but I've also been working at my other job -- dressing sets for SPRING catalogues, all while entertaining house guests (aka my parents).  Not complaining, all are great things, but who has time to get in the holiday spirit?

Speaking of time.  Every year in October I have great intentions of sending holiday cards. This year I have no excuse, considering I have a pile of skårt cards just begging to be addressed and sent out.  I was supposed to list them for sale on Etsy -- but that never happened either.  Alas, I haven't even made a list of who I should send to, and looks like they will not get sent. 

Do you send out holiday cards? If so, is there a protocol on dates, when is it too late? Can I still send them if I get them in the mail by friday? 

Latest Kindle commercial

Another fun time was had by all, making the latest Kindle commercial.  It still amazes me when I watch it that it took 3 full days to shoot a mere 30 seconds of footage.  

How I spent my summer vacation...

While you were spending your summer soaking in the sun, sending the kids off to camp and drinking icy beverages I was building snow-forts, giant gingerbread men and decorating a 45' christmas tree.

The fruits of all my summer "hard labor" arrived this week in the mail. It came in the form of the Target Holiday Toy catalog. For a week this past June I spent 16 hours a day in a studio creating many of the sets and backgrounds to shoot the toys featured in the catalog. We built a life size gingerbread house, glued together giant gumdrop trees, and created an entire bedroom snow-fort out of Styrofoam and salt. When was the last time you put together a three story Barbie Dream House (btw, when did her house get so big and complicated?) or baked an Easy Bake oven cake? We had to do all that and whole more for this catalog. So before you line your bird cage or toss it in the recycle bin, take another look at it. Let me share with you a few secrets behind one of the sets we made and let you in on how much work goes into just one of those shots.

If you have the catalog you can turn to page 42 for reference. Or click HERE for a better view.

Which is better the Kindle or the ipad?

Oh, I'm not talking about the products, I'm talking about the commercials! 

Apple has been known for their innovative advertising campaigns, however, I have to give the prize to Amazon this time. The commercials for the Kindle are so whimsical and fun.   And I'm not just saying that because I did the set design for their latest one.  (although I suppose that would make me a little bias) -- 

what do you think? 

"What do you do?"

I am attending a wedding this weekend. I know there will be a lot of old friends to catch up with and a lot of new people I will meet. I am kind of dreading the inevitable question, “What do you do?”

It’s not because I don’t love what I do, it’s just that I don’t really know how to exactly put it in words.

How do you explain that one day you are laying down grass for a movie star to lie on, while the next day you are suspending a rock star by her ankles from the ceiling. Do I go into detail about my one day jaunt up to Alaska to create a tea party for a certain political family?

“Set Designer, Prop Stylist, Art Director” Unless you are in the business it’s hard to really explain what it all means. And now I have new job titles to add to my list like Artist and Entrepreneur. How does "Purveyor of eco friendly art for children" sound? Maybe I will use this wedding to test out different answers and see what feels the most comfortable.

In the meantime if you would like to know more about what I do when I'm not printing and imagining new and brilliant Skårt designs , check out the videos below for a little behind the scenes footage of some of the most recent shoots I’ve worked on.

I've run off with the Circus!

These last few weeks before the holiday have been super busy with jobs from My Other Career.  "I can't come to the blog right now because I've joined the circus" -- I bet that is one you don't hear everyday!  In my case, I didn't really join the circus, but for the last two weeks I have been building them.  Last week we built a big carnival set.  And then that was such a success that this week we were called in to change it up and build a circus set.  A lot of fun, but a lot of work.  Since I've been so busy with My Other Career, I have no new designs or Skårt stories to share.  Instead, here are some pictures from behind the scenes of the shoot:

We brought in a Ferris Wheel for the backdrop

Built our own food booths

Made giant, prize winning fruit! 

And even brought in a few animals (the elephant is fake, but the monkey was Real!) 

Let it snow

It's June, of course that is synonymous with christmas lights, reindeer and snow.  Well, maybe not in your world, but in our set design world, June is the month when everyone starts thinking and shooting their holiday campaigns. We just finished up two weeks in New York working on CVS's holiday book.  The climax of the shoot was the big outdoor decor shot.  We brought in a team of special effects guys to create a winter wonderland on location at a house in Jersey.

Below is a little video I put together so you can see that behind the scenes of what it takes to create something of this scale.

Sneaking my art on set

I still haven't made any real prints yet. But the designs are separated and already to go. I have paper and ink print outs of everything and of course the samples I started with.  So when I was asked to make a "Cool Kids Room, that has blue accents and paper airplanes" for an upcoming Adidas shoot , how could I not take advantage of free publicity and use some of my own art.  

They wanted everything sort of haphazard and messy, with bold graphic elements.  Not necessarily my aesthetic.  I usually like things a little more orderly.  The client loved it, and that's all that matters.  Can't wait to see what the ads look like (keep an eye out for them in stores this fall!) 

Meanwhile -- back at my first career

I guess this blog doesn't have to be all about Skart.  After all, I do have a life and career out side of all this.  And sometimes this other life and job can be pretty amusing.  

Like for instance, this week we did a couple of shoots for GQ magazine.  The first shoot was for a story about Bachelor parties.  The concept for the photographs was an editorial spread about the different types of bachelor parties men can plan, from your typical strip club, to  a more subdued poker night to an overnight camping trip in the woods.   Instead of using men to portray the scenes of the story, we used Chimps.  Actually just two chimps.  Suzy, a 3 year old girl, and Jake, a 6 year old male.  The retoucher then duplicated the chimps in different positions as needed.  We shot in an existing strip club with little suzy.  She had the greatest facial expressions.  We hung a backdrop and built a realistic looking campsite in the parking lot of said strip club.  And then we copied the "dogs playing poker" scenario and had Jake holding cards and smoking cigars (as soon as we handed him a cigarette or cigar he knew what to do with it)  The final result were some of the most hysterical pictures I have worked. on.

The second shoot, also for GQ was of A.P.  We shot her at the Chateau Marmont.  It was a pretty easy shoot.  She came up with the concepts herself -- Having just had a baby she liked the idea of her being a homemaker with not much experience so we photographed her making grilled cheese sandwiches with a home iron.  Cute.  She was super adorable and really nice.  She went out of her way to meet and thank the whole crew, always a sign of a real professional who appreciates that the world does not revolve around them.