Buff Strickland’s latest print promo perfectly reflects her photographic style: bright, clean and well-executed. The 30-some page booklet titled, “How We Live,” seamlessly transitions between’s Buff’s specialties—from food/drink and lifestyle, to portraiture and kids work. Besides the fact that the booklet incorporates Buff’s variety of work into one digestible promo, my favorite part about its design are the tearable recipe inserts, which feature dishes from a recent cookbook that Buff shot for Camille Styles. Below, Buff gives us some insight into creating the booklet, which was sent out to 100 creatives and has already garnered some great positive feedback!
To start, can you tell me a little bit about your style as a photographer?
My work focuses on people and how we live, whether it’s the food we eat, the spaces we live in or how we spend our time. I create images that have an easy feeling to them, happy, upbeat and convey my idea of living life for the small moments and enjoying the people and places around us in thoughtful, warm, authentic ways.
How did you come up with the concept for this promo? Have you seen anything like this before?
I had just wrapped up shooting a seasonal entertaining book and loved the idea of showcasing some of my favorite images from the book and some of my newer and existing work. The recipe idea I had seen done in a couple other places and thought it would be a nice addition to the piece.
Did you work with a designer on the book? If so, who?
I did! I worked with Nicole Fikes at Merry Design Studio. I had done some work for her and she really connected with my images and she does wonderful work with type and layout, so it made perfect sense to hire her to design the piece.
Can you tell me a bit about the final concept and what your goals were when you were creating it?
I spent some time looking through images and editing with Jasmine Defoore here in Austin. She and I discussed various themes and because I shoot a variety of work I was attracted to the idea of showing all the ways in which we live today as a way of bringing the images together. I had never done a really big piece like this before and I was hoping to make an impact on creatives and give them an idea of the scope and quality of my work in a well designed, printed piece. I targeted design firms and small agencies (as well as existing clients).
How many creatives did you/will you send it out to? Have you seen any success or positive results already?
I’ve sent it to about 100 creative and have another 50 to send out still. I’ve gotten good feedback so far. People have been contacting me directly as a result of seeing the piece, I have some good leads on some new clients and I have reconnected with people I haven’t shot with in a while.
Too see more of Buff’s work, visit buffstrickland.com.