This week’s cover of Timeout Chicago features a FUN!! photograph of my friend and fellow tango dancer, Romina Giffi, and her “dog” …. in a bottle.
Huh?
It’s for the Small Spaces issue that looks at creating stylish yet functional living spaces in less than 600 square feet.
600 square feet?
Yep, that would be a room 24′ by 25′. Two rooms 15 x20. Roughly 2 semi-truck trailers side-by-side. In a word: SMALL. Or rather: small.
The art direction behind the photograph was how to articulate this feeling quickly and clearly.
A ship in a bottle?
A girl in a bottle?
A girl in her apartment… in a bottle?
A girl in her apartment? With her dog? In a bottle?
That’s what we want…..
The element that I thought was really important was giving the bottle space and breathing room. If you look at ships in bottles (say … on your Hemingway-loving grandfather’s mantel) you’ll see that the ship is rather cramped. It comes with the thought: how the heck they get that in there?
For this photograph, I felt it important for there to be space. Albeit small, the space in the bottle needed to be ample. Inviting. And fun! I really wanted it to be fun! And what better fun than popcorn-catching dog tricks?
A very big Thank You to Deana Cizek and Andrew Augustin of Chicago’s Room & Board Showroomwho gave us free reign on an early early Sunday morning to create our perfect apartment in a bottle. To Jenn Lake of Zapwater Communications who helped connect me with the lovely people at Room & Board.
And especially to the lovely Romina Giffi, who had the perfect matching outfit for our apartment. And checkout the little rough-and-tumble version of the forthcoming behind-the-scenes video where we see how she really connects with her pooch. It’s true love …. and fun!
And finally to Champ. Awesome work!
And a fun behind-the-scenes video is here:
https://vimeo.com/48975148