Cream of Wheat; 1913-1925
Hosting Our First Major Exhibit at the New Location
This week, we decided to host our first major exhibit at our new location. It features original art from the Cream of Wheat advertising campaign from the period of 1913-1925. The exhibit begins on October 10, 2008, which doesn't leave much runway for a show of this magnitude, but it was a fairly spontaneous decision by all the players involved.
The worst thing an art gallery can do is be boring, and this exhibit is anything but.
This exhibit is fascinating on many levels. To begin with, the art is amazing. The campaign director was very insistent on using the best available illustration artists, and the art reflects that. The imagery is very wholesome and comforting, and humor is a common element in many of the illustrations.
The exhibit also presents and discusses the use of racial stereotypes in the media. Times change, and so do acceptable standards. The Cream of Wheat campaign usually used an African-American chef as a welcoming and reassuring icon. Was this naive, demeaning, or enlightened on the part of Cream of Wheat?
Additionally, Cream of Wheat went from a minor grain mill in North Dakota to a major worldwide cereal company in ten years because of its effective use of advertising and image branding. This alone is worthy of a Harvard business case study.
Cream of Wheat was located in Northeast Minneapolis from 1897 to 2002. The company has changed hands several times and is no longer independent. These paintings were in storage in the archives of the headquarters until the building was converted to condominiums in 2005. This might be the last opportunity to see a body of work this complete.
The best part of this exhibit is the chance to work with Dan and Sarah again. We first worked with them last year for The Dream Girl exhibit, and they are a class act. Maybe next year we can do a pulp fiction or science fiction theme?
The fine art of fine art printing
The Art and Science of Fine Art Printing
Fine art printing is one of my favorite aspects of this business.
Printing is a nuanced science. By this, I mean that while printing can be defined in technical terms, it is the final perception by the viewer that defines the print's impact.
But it isn't rocket science, and it isn't brain surgery.
The first thing a fine art print shop needs to accomplish is having all of the devices interpret color the same way. This is achieved through closed loop calibration, which normalizes the environment. Outside the loop, colors might shift unless the device outside the loop is given the same calibration specifications. Color calibration requires regular re-calibration due to temperature and humidity changes.
That solves the issue of repeatability. The next step is accuracy.
Accuracy requires understanding the personality of the devices and the media. Every media has unique characteristics. We create about 1,200 color patches for each media we use. These patches are read back into the computer with a photospectrometer (a device that reads color) and a compensation file is created based on the expected versus the actual color values. This color profile is used by the printer to compensate for any color shifts.
However, there is an infinite number of color frequencies between each of the 1,200 patches, and this is where the media personalities come into play. Does the media like blue frequencies? How well does it contrast? How bright is the base material? Stuff like that.
Fine art printing can be somewhat iterative, but it isn't 'black magic'. I smile every time I hear a printer try to make the process sound so mysterious.
So anyway, lots of variables, and each project is unique.
Good times, and Save the Chief.
Blog from the Baghdad Bureau
Photojournalism Exhibit by Max Becherer
In September 2005, we hosted a photojournalism exhibit by Max Becherer. Max was an embedded photographer during the initial 'Shock and Awe' invasion of Iraq in 2003 and has traveled back and forth between Iraq and Afghanistan several times, often for months at a time. Max's exhibit presented various storylines depicting what life is like for Iraqis in the post-Saddam era. The objective was to offer an honest portrayal; it is what it is.
The exhibit was very moving, and I am proud to have Max as a friend. Max is a giant of a man with an uncanny eye for capturing the emotion within an image. His work includes some pretty horrific combat photography, requiring a special skill set to be both sensitive to the subject matter and still tell the story.
Max has shared some very emotional reflections on the past five years in Iraq. His piece was published in The New York Times on March 18, 2008. You can read it here. After that, visit his website at www.MaxBecherer.com.
To Max: Keep your head low and travel safely.