The Story Behind the Image
Once I got all my credits transferred from Northwest College, I was about halfway to a degree, but I needed a few more credits. One of them being a photoshop class. I’d been using Photoshop since its 2.0 inception for the yearbook in high school. But Photoshop had evolved since the late 90s, and even though I used the app day in and day for my job, I had to prove my prowess with an independent study project.
I worked out a deal with the head of the multimedia department, a nice fellow named Brandon. Luckily, a student film festival is coming up, and he needed a promotional poster to advertise the event around campus. It was a win-win. He’d get his poster, and I’d fast track earning the credit for his class.
I sketched some ideas out, and we landed on the concept of “Grade A Cuts of Film.” Next, I set up a photoshoot at the local Wild Oats (now Whole Foods) and photographed their meat counter. We opted for a retro feel 50s feel, and Brandon posed in one of the school’s green rooms rather than posing at the meat counter. Plus, the lighting in the deli was awful with its green-tinted fluorescent lighting. And since it was a photoshop class, I needed to do some photoshop work. The lettering on the poster I drew by hand and scanned into photoshop and colored.
The result is the image below. Take a peek behind the scenes and check out the video below showing you all the different layers that went into making it.