By Karrisa Fichera
A good night’s rest and an excellent cup of coffee (from Crema, in this case) is all we needed to re-charge for our second day of meetings in Nashville after being in Birmingham the previous day. One thing I immediately noticed about the city, aside from the 350,000 square foot Music City Center that can fit nearly seven Boeing planes inside of it, was how unbelievably friendly and accommodating everyone was. Opportunity for a courtesy nod or smile never goes overlooked in good ‘ol Nash.
Our first destination was iostudio, a creative agency with an impressive collection of work under their belt. The designers and creative team were super welcoming and suggested plenty of things to check out in Nashville (noted for future visits: hot chicken.) In between the friendly chatter, they raved about portfolios of a few local photographers we shared, like Robby Klein and Josh Anderson. Seeing as the agency does a lot of work with the National Guard (fun fact: their offices act as a call center for enlisting), Jonathan Chapman‘s action lifestyle images stood out among the books. Not only was Andrew Maguire‘s book a hit, but his promo pieces were too. We were also pleasantly surprised to learn that they were Hollis Bennett fans, and already had a shoot scheduled with him for an upcoming project.
We were anticipating our visit to Catapult Marketing for days. A huge agency with 10 offices around the country, their Nashville branch consistently zeroes in on pet-related clients. We made sure to show them an array of lifestyle books, but the obvious stars here were Winnie Au, Barbara O’Brien and Landon Nordeman. Winnie’s portfolio is not only adorable and kept everyone squealing from page to page, but impressed the Catapult team with the quality of her photographs. Barbara and Landon both had leave-behinds available–mini books showcasing their best pooches. Despite their animal focus, people are important to them too, as they enjoyed Stewart Cohen‘s portraits.
Our last stop of the day, and the only one-on-one meeting of the trip was at Warner Music, where sat down with Creative Director Shane Tarleton. His cozy office, Christmas tree in tow, felt like we walked into a William Sonoma catalog–except with a bunch of platinum-selling records on the wall. Being a huge music fan, I was excited about this one. He looked thoroughly through the stack of books we brought him, mentioning the excitement he feels when he has the opportunity to look at prints. Shane favored Stephanie Diani‘s style, along with Robby Klein‘s, who he’s worked with in the past. Fate fell into place when he opened Ryan Gibson‘s book. It happened to be the exact vision he had for an upcoming album shoot for a rock band, and was interested in contacting Ryan immediately. That was a perfect note to end on for us.
With our muscles significantly stronger from hauling portfolio cases for days, we high-fived (really) and got to enjoy our last night in Nashville at Tavern Midtown with a handful of Wonderful Machiners. It was a fun way to close out our stay, although we were tempted to cancel our flight home and stay in Nashville forever.
Ironically, our flight did get cancelled, and we had the luxury of spending an extra 9 hours in the Nashville airport the next day. We did eventually make it home safely to reflect on the fabulous experience for all of you. Can’t wait to do it all again soon!
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