Hey guys,

I put together a little video explaining a bit more about Guerrilla Photo Shoots and where my idea struck me. Check it out on Vimeo or YouTube!






Learn more about Guerrilla Photo Shoots on the GPS Blog, on the GPS Facebook Group or by following @GuerrillaPhoto on Twitter. Be sure to tell your friends! (The first Guerrilla Photo Shoot will take place in New York in May. Check the Facebook Group or the blog to learn more!)

Labels: Art, Blog, Boston, GPS, Guerrilla, Justin Schuck, New York, Photo, Shoots, Video, Vlog, washington dc

I'm really proud to announce the release of a little video from the election. I've been wanting to get this out here. Working with that org this spring/summer—the one that screwed me—I didn't have time for much else.

In 2000 I was the volunteer coordinator with McCain Youth 2000. It was a great experience and he ran an honorable campaign. But something was different this time around. Here's a little ditty I put together that *should have* aired before the election. (But then there was a death in the family just before the election, and then I got sidetracked with a work backlog.)

So, to the tune of Kate Nash's "Foundations" here's "Political Foundations." I purchased the instrumental tracks without the voices, but I felt that unless you knew the song you wouldn't get the flow without context.

If there are any female vocalists with a similar range out there, please call or email me!



Please visit my page at: YouTube.com/JASchuck and leave a comment and a rating. Thank you so much.

(If I had more time I could have done a more well-produced sample but my Final Cut Pro HD crapped out on me!)

Labels: Advertising, America, Art, Barack Obama, Big News, Blog, business, Democrat, design, John McCain, JSDS, Justin Schuck, Obama-Biden, President-elect, Video

I just want to let you in on a well-known secret. I have, along with others, gone over and over on the various design directions for my main photography website, JustinSchuck.com — where this blog is hosted. I'm a consummate perfectionist with a revisionist streak. Here now are some screen shots (in chronological order) of my design evolutions.

The design below was originally designed as a placeholder. Theoretically there was going to be a flash version of the site where the boxes moved around on mouseover and the images would change up and have lots of funky transitions. After about 6 months or more of the placeholder, I started making updates and expansions which leads us to the next design.



So this was the last real evolution of the design still visible on the vintage (legacy) site still hosted on the main server. I eventually reached the point of frustration and admitted that the site wasn't going to change much and I made some adjustments to typeface and the structure of the site.



Before I settled on the semi-permanent design direction above I started working on several new design directions at once. The next four designs were worked on simultaneously. You can clearly tell which design directions received the most attention. You may also note the temporary name change. At the time we were starting this project we were also taking on financial partners to build what could have been "The Justin Schuck Gallery & Studio." There were several designs in this direction, including full identity and letterhead designs.



Again, playing with typeface and trying to think how I wanted my brand represented, I worked towards the following design, but I was really unhappy with it. The "logo" appearing below was also used for marketing materials and display items, some of which I still use today, although not often. We were still going back and forth as to what the new company should be called, ultimately Justin Schuck Photography was the most appropriate.



I was going back and forth on a daily basis as to whether or not I should use my "tag" signature, which I still really like to this day and hope to find some way to use it. But who knows, it's the alt-rocker in me. The following design is a better example of logical navigation occurring "above the fold" as it were. This design was also the first time all four cities appeared in a design. The four cities were later incorporated into the "vintage" design and still appear there today.



This is a progression of the above design. The navigation would animate and "light up" the tab color. This also recalls design elements of my acclaimed original JustinSchuck.com which functioned solely as a personal website. That design is buried somewhere on a CD in storage. Anyhow, back to the design below... I really liked this design, but there was something holding me back from implementing the design. I think the biggest barrier to it's implementation was navigation partially obscured below the fold on a 640x480 template. I honestly can't remember.



What was most likely the death knell for the site above is the design below. It's one of those epiphany designs that occur between the hours of first darkness and first light. I remember working on the design for at least three days straight before making additional changes as evidenced in the following design.



I love the picture of the kids below and seeing this again reminds me that I need to put together a serious gallery of all my work for the last 12 years. There's some really good stuff in there if I do say so myself. Back to designs...

I changed the background to gray, put telephone numbers and email at the top which would allow for navigation going down the side. This is also when our company tag line became "Photography for the way you live.™" which is still pending. We also developed a working click-through for the Online Previews service. It was great to see the design come so far. This really was my favorite, but after some server-side testing, some focus groups and a changing design team, this too was abandoned.



This little piece was for our other-branded sites as part of a broader internet ranking strategy for our Dubai sites. It was an extremely effective campaign – perhaps too effective – but was eventually taken down due to the closing of our full-time Dubai operations earlier this year.



After no real progress had been made, and with the current design at the time reaching five years of age, I finally threw the following design up on the site. The "vintage" site is such a mess, especially with so many revisions and so many hands touching it. The code is all kinds of fouled up, and I consider myself as one of the most organized and obsessive-compulsive HTML coders on the planet. The only reason the vintage site is still live is so I don't have to create another temporary site that would likely become semi-permanent.




I really like where the most current site design is going, and it serves as the inspiration of the next site. Hopefully some time soon we will have the new site design templates posted. Because seriously, I've had way too much JustinSchuck.com. (That's why I've transfered "the power" over the new design direction over to my lovely Andrea.)

Labels: Advertising, Art, Case Study, design, Dubai, Identity, Justin Schuck, Photo, photography

I'm in a self-congratulatory mood today. I'm almost done with the non-stop paint-a-thon at my mom's house. (Pictures to follow soon). But I wanted to thank my designer Andrea for appreciating some of my work. It feels good to get rave approval from a fellow designer. It was certainly unexpected.

Thank you! I'm humbled.

Labels: Art, Blog, business, design, Justin Schuck

I recently returned from a photographic expedition to New Orleans. Having not experienced the pre-Katrina New Orleans, I long for something that, for me, never was. But the New Orleans of old is still a sad and painful memory for most. The old mind's picture is of children playing and going to school; of families enjoying loving meals in their dining rooms; of a community that served each other.

It could be said that I toured the devastated areas, and visited and patronized others, but to me, there was no neighborhood that was not devastated. I had the great fortune to volunteer in New york immediately after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. I witnessed and documented the devastation, and the massive loss of human life.

In New Orleans, the devastation is far greater than that in New York. The devastation of the entire gulf coast is about more than destroyed homes, schools and the physical structures that man erects. The devastation has separated families, in many cases by thousands of miles. The devastation separates pets from their families and friends. The devastation turned cities with astonishingly low homeless rates into cities with low home-dweller rates.

It's honestly the saddest thing I have ever witnessed. I will continue to occasionally post items here about my stories from New Orleans, including selected images for my new rotating gallery show.

Labels: Art, Gallery, Gulf Coast, Hurricane Katrina, Justin Schuck, New Orleans, photography