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By Meg Dibley
For our portfolio meetings this month, we reached out to Rodale Inc. in Emmaus, PA and landed three meetings with Organic Gardening Magazine, Rodale Books and Prevention Magazine.
When we arrived at Rodale, it was a winter wonderland. With a few minutes to spare before our first meeting, we stopped into the Rodale General Store. Stocked with organic soaps, holiday loot and foodie books galore, the shop was every bit of healthy and happy we expected from the publishing company that “inspires people to live their whole lives.”
After exploring, we sat down with the creative team at Organic Gardening. We dug deep (see what I did there?) into conversation with photo editor Patrick to understand the style, stories and subject matter that they tend to feature most. He gave us a few issues of the magazine and pointed out those full-bleed openers that really grab the attention of readers. We shared a variety of books from some of our finest home and garden, lifestyle and food photographers. Stephen DeVries’ 16”x 20” portfolio complete with logo embossed on the fabric cover was one of their favorite books. At the end of the meeting, they grabbed plenty of our photographers’ leave behinds.
We met with Carol, the Art Director for Rodale Books for our second meeting. After describing her latest search for one particular book cover image, we shared the Wonderful Machine stock search with her and offered our help to find individual images for upcoming books. She was pleased to hear about this option and also inquired about our crew page. As we looked through several books of our food photographers, she was particularly impressed by the work of Michael Piazza, describing the images as ‘natural and beautiful, but not too restaurant-y’. This sounded like an appropriate fit with the vibe of Rodale.
Next, we took the elevator up to the third floor to meet with the group from Prevention. They thoroughly enjoyed browsing all of the books we brought for them–a wide selection of lifestyle, fitness and portrait photographers. Winnie Au’s book was an undeniable hit. They described their layouts and image choices for different sections of the magazine, expressing interest in photographers from a number of different locations, and particularly for people doing inspiring activities in inspiring places. The Prevention team left our meeting with an armful of postcards, t-shirts and holiday gifts as well.
After wrapping up our meetings, we were honored to be given a tour of Rodale. This was a great way to get better acquainted with their brand. Between the inspiration boards, a quiet and meditation room plus organic choices in the cafeteria, Rodale seems every bit of what it’s happy lifestyle publications promote. We enjoyed our visit with the editorial gang and were happy to promote another group of our photographers along with receiving valuable insight from the mindset of healthful living.
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