LA Diary: M&C Saatchi, 72andSunny, RPA, Ignited, TBWA

I’ve never been to the west coast. It’s true. I’ve traveled out of the country on several occasions, but I’ve never touched down on the opposite side of my own–until last week, that is. Gia and I arrived in Los Angeles last Tuesday for another series of portfolio reviews. An excitement built up inside of me as we drove through the city on the way to our hotel in Marina Del Rey and immediately consumed a mind-blowing meal at Sunny Spot (if you live in the area, you must go). Jet lag couldn’t keep us from hosting our traditional happy hour with some Wonderful Machine member photographers. Laughs were exchanged and selfies were taken— a perfect recipe to gear us up for the following busy days of meetings.

Our first stop was M&C Saatchi, where we sat one-on-one with Production Director, Brian Bushaw. Brian enthusiastically flipped through a handful of books as he gave us a better idea of their clients and projects they’ve been working on. Boston still life photographer Bruce Peterson seemed to really resonate with him, along with the colorful and creative work of John Kuczala. We were happy to hear that he often encourages the creative team to use Wonderful Machine, and told him about more ways we can help in the future. After giving Brian a stack of leave-behinds, we set out to continue our journey, with a pit stop at the Santa Monica pier.

Visiting the 72andSunny offices was appropriate this day, as the weather exactly matched the name. We sat in their open, airy space and chatted with Genevieve Dellinger, who paged through multiple books as she gave us a sense of the kind of photography they work with and the types of accounts they hold. Local celebrity photographers Karl J. Kaul and Kyle Christy stood out, as did some of the Vegas hotels in Tanaka Blaney‘s book, which led us to reflect on some Vegas experiences. Genevieve was happy to hear about our stock feature and plans to use it in the future.

The final visit of the day was Rubin Postaer and Associates. It’s walls were filled with motivational words and the outdoor courtyard was occupied by employees holding meetings, which was enough to know it was a fun and inspiring environment to be in. A ton of their creatives stopped in to look through all of the 25 books we brought along as we got them up to speed with what we’re all about. They do a lot of work for Honda, so almost the entire staff beelined towards the work of local automotive photographers  John Early and Scott Gilbert. The conceptual work of Rickett & Sones and fun youth lifestyle of Chris Baldwin were also crowd pleasers. On a successful note, we headed back for the day.

Thursday started off at a quick pace, as we got our first real experience in the notorious LA traffic. We eventually arrived at Ignited where we met with Sam Helphand, who looked through multiple books while we made some recommendations for a campaign he has coming up. He was in search of food and lifestyle, so it was perfect that we had Scott Peterson and Inti St. Clair on hand.

As we pulled up to our last meeting at TBWAChiatDay, the first thing we saw were these words displayed large on the side of their building: “be more human (and if in doubt) be more dog.” This could only mean one thing–they’re our people. That was justified even more once we walked inside to see dogs walking around in every direction.

Gia and I spent time chatting with the creatives here as they made their way down our line of precisely arranged books. Some of the art buyers recognized the work of Steve Boyle, as he had recently been there for meetings. Others that hadn’t seen him were impressed, as his sports portraits echo the style of their Gatorade campaigns:

We returned home from California with new friends, new clients, and vitamin D in our skin. And very sore muscles. Because man, those portfolios never seem to feel lighter! Until next time….

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