Lili’s Bistro on Magnolia

1310 W Magnolia Avenue
Fort Worth, TX 76104

(Click photo to visit the site)

Showing some love to the local eateries near our new home on Magnolia, I recently ventured out only to discover the best fish tacos I have had to date. The atmosphere of this small bistro was very relaxing and the service was friendly, helping me through the menu. As the newest addition to the Schaefer family as well as Ft. Worth I know I have a lot to learn, but today Lili’s fish taco’s are on the top of my list. That being said, I’m a growing boy and I like to eat and discover new things so look out Ft. Worth!

-Colton

New week, New month, New issue of 360 West Magazine

And We’re In It!

This month’s The Cool Issue features our NEW agency home in Fort Worth. We’re so grateful to the amazing 360 West Magazine team: the photographs are stunning and the article is such a great representation of who we are and also the history of our building.

Check it out for yourself and get in on What’s Cool, especially pages 31-45.

Notice something different on our blog? Stay tuned to learn and see more!

Don’t mess with Blanchard Schaefer’s new office manager, Monica.  At 5’ 4’’ she has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and is a Wii boxing champion. Her favorite color is pink and she loves chocolate (without nuts) and Mexican food, but not at the same time.

If money and time didn’t matter, Monica would be found at The Container Store loading up on crates, racks, files and bins to organize her home and whatever else she can get her hands on.  One of the many reasons why she is the perfect fit as our new office manager.

“I’m very excited about being here. I hope to better organize the company as a whole,” she said.  “ The first impression clients or customers get when they call or walk in the front door is very important to me. It’s not about Blanchard Schaefer, but what Blanchard Schaefer can do to help others.”

As office manager, Monica’s favorite office supplies are pens.  However, not just any pens, but pink and purple pens that write smoothly and “feel good”.

Monica is a Texas native who was raised in Ft. Worth, and loves to travel whether it is for a mission trip with her church or a vacation with her two daughters.  Monica describes herself as fun, always laughing, loves her family and God.

We are excited to welcome Monica into our family!

-Lindsay Schaefer, intern

INDUSTRY PROFILES: FOOD STYLIST ANGELA YEUNG

Why did you want to be a food stylist?
My father is a photographer and growing up I was always fascinated by the whole photography process. His studio was such a mysterious place - the darkroom I couldn’t enter, the film boxes I couldn’t open, and the food on set I couldn’t eat. Of course as a child the things you can’t do are the things that interest you most! There were always food stylists in his studio and I loved to watch them work and was intrigued by the things they did to make the food look so amazing and appetizing. I think that is when I initially became interested in food. At 19 I enrolled in culinary school while I was living in New Orleans and went on to work at Susan Spicer’s Bayona as a cook. After 3 years of cooking in New Orleans, I wanted to  continue to finesse my culinary skills and was accepted at the prestigious Ecole Superieure De cuisine Ferrandi in Paris, one of the top professional cooking schools in France. I went on to stage at a Michelin star restaurant in Paris. I continued to work as a chef and pastry chef for the next few years before eventually coming full circle to pursue food styling. Food is my passion and food styling is the perfect way for me to combine creativity with technical skills to make food look it’s absolute best for the camera.

How would a person become a food stylist? What steps are involved?
The best advice is to first learn how to cook. Ask to assist other food stylists - you may have to work for free at first to get your foot in the door but if you work hard and do a good job they may take you on. 

What do you enjoy most about being a food stylist?
I love that my job is never the same. Everyday is different whether it be a different studio, client, product, or location. It keeps my job interesting! I also love that I get to work with food everyday! I feel so fortunate to have such a great career where I get to do what I love.

What was your first job as a food stylist?
My first job as a food stylist was when I was 20 years old and still in culinary school - I did an editorial photo shoot with my dad for a magazine back in 1998. The story was about chicken and filled with great recipes. It was so much fun, I even cooked lunch for everyone during the shoot - afterwards my dad told me I should become a food stylist. 

What was your favorite/most complicated/interesting job?
My favorite jobs are when I get to go out on location - I did a shoot in San Francisco and every day we shot in a different part of the Bay Area. One day we were in the studio in the city, then the rest of the week we went from Napa Valley to Palo Alto, then to a gorgeous park - it made for an exciting week. I also love doing editorial work - there’s not a lot of editorial work in Dallas so I really enjoy the opportunity. 

What was the weirdest food you’ve had to work with?
The two jobs that stand out as being the weirdest was I once had to shop for and style raw pigs feet. It’s eerie how similar to human flesh pig skin can look like. I remember trying to push down a toenail that was sticking up too much. The other job probably has to be a packaging job I did for wet cat and dog food. It smelled pretty bad and I had to really dig through the food with tweezers to pick out all the nice bits of rice and meat. 

Who is your favorite chef?
There are so many great chefs out there it’s hard for me to pick a favorite. I have favorite food cities - New Orleans, Paris, San Francisco, New York to name a few. When I travel instead of sightseeing I’m usually trying to find all the best and most interesting places to eat and drink. My two favorite meals of 2011 so far have been at chef Christian Etchebest’s la Cantine du Troquet in Paris - we had an amazingly simple but delicious Basque meal there. And  I really enjoyed chef Bryce Gilmore’s Barley Swine restaurant in Austin - we had this incredible grilled carrot salad, it’s probably the best thing I’ve eaten all year.

Be sure to check out Angela’s website for more examples of her work.

—Corey Landers, Intern

Industry Profile: Photographer Geno Loro Jr.

How would a person go into photography? What steps are involved?
As with most professions, you need a solid understanding of what it is you are doing. With digital photography, it’s easy to shoot and look at your image immediately and see if you have captured an acceptable image. But not knowing why or how you did it will limit your creativity. The next step would be to work with a professional, as an assistant. School can only teach you so much. Experience in a working studio is very important if you want to do this for a living. Learning how to work with clients, budgets, deadlines, etc. is crucial.

Why did you personally enter into photography?
I was a journalism major when I had to take a photo journalism class. Once I developed my first roll of film and watched as that first print appeared on the paper in the developer, I was hooked!  I changed my major, and schools. Fortunately, my father is an artist, he understood completely. I went to school and got a Bachelor of Science degree in photography, where they teach you photography from the ground up. 

What do you enjoy most about the industry?
There are two things I enjoy the most about what I do. I have met some amazing people in my career; other photographers, clients that have become life long friends, celebrities and athletes that I have photographed. I also enjoy the fact that no two jobs are exactly the same. It’s always something different.

What was your first job as a photographer?
My first “professional” job was shooting a quilt for Quilting World Magazine. I was still in school at the time. My first real job was back in Chicago, at Kranzten Studios. We shot fashion, catalog, etc. A great learning experience.

What was your most interesting job?
I worked for a biomedical research facility in San Antonio. They studied the effects of HIV and other diseases on primates. They also did research for premature births. They had a breeding colony of baboons, and would perform a C-Section to take a baby baboon early for study. I photographed this procedure on one of my trips there. I’m a very squeamish person, but looking through a camera lens makes it seem a little less real.

Who is your favorite photographer of all time?
I don’t have one favorite photographer. My favorite images are from the 30s and 40s. 
Robert Capa captured amazing images during WWII. I also admire the work of Henri Catier-Bresson, Dorthea Lange and Edward Weston.

Be sure to check out Geno’s website and view his work.

—Corey Landers, Intern

Behind the Scenes: Chicken Express Photo Shoot

A picture says more than a thousand words. Too bad no one knows how much work goes into that picture.

We are redesigning the menu boards for Chicken Express and that includes getting pictures of the actual food, so we had a photo shoot.

Now, whenever I hear “photo shoot”, I immediately think of models, fashion and Tyra Banks, but we were taking pictures of fried chicken. But that doesn’t mean the amount of work was anything less than shocking.

We started at 7:30 a.m. at Chicken Express in Weatherford. After choosing the country-red color palette and the metallic-sheet background, Gino, our photographer, was finally ready to start the first shot. It took an hour and a half to perfectly capture the beauty of scrumptious corn and creamy mashed potatoes.

Our food stylist, Angela, took great care in perfecting the look of each dish. Oil was painted on the chicken to brighten the color, sticky tack was used to prop up each piece, and fake, gel-like ice made the famous sweet tea look overflowing with frothy goodness. Crumbs, strategically placed, gave the impression everything was being enjoyed, and tenders were carefully torn to reveal the juicy white meat beneath.

Who knew crispy chicken could be so complicated? We spent over 7 hours working that day.

Each photo takes an excruciating amount of time to set up, but the end result is beautiful. We were offered some of the food we’d been shooting all day and we gobbled it down joyfully.

Good to know advertising works.

Fun Fact: Chicken Express serves Dublin Dr Pepper (made with Imperial Cane sugar). I had about 3 large refills of it. So good.

—Corey Landers, Intern

In Tarrant County, more than 20 percent of the population has been diagnosed with hypertension.

One of the most effective ways to combat this problem is through proactive blood pressure screening and preventative care. JPS Health Network desired to encourage preventative health and build loyalty at its community health centers. Based on research conducted by BSAPR, the agency made the recommendation to focus first on hypertension, then prenatal care and finally,  diabetes management.

The resulting campaign and creative direction takes an unexpected view of the problem than what you typically see from hospital marketing. Instead of a friendly photo of a doctor, the campaign uses the image of a grenade to illustrate the “ticking time bomb” dangers posed to your heart if it is subject to long-term high blood pressure. The campaign executions include outdoor, print and transit and can be seen around Tarrant County now. 

The additional community health campaigns are in development. Stay tuned for the reveal of those. 

- Ashley and Kim

decodering:

Setting a Google Map as the Background of your Web Site

So the other day I was Googling ways to “set a Google map as the background of your site” with little luck at all on finding a good solution. So I decided to create one using CSS properties and utilizing the z-index/absolute positioning of elements.

To get an idea of what I did, visit: http://wadehammes.com/dewey-beach/

I shared this on my personal blog, but I thought this was so interesting I thought I would share this little nugget of goodness with you folks as well. I’ve seen some site designs that have implemented interactive maps on their about pages, but this implementation seems like something that would be accessible to front-end-developers without too much headache.

This could be advantageous for business to consumer companies wanting to share franchise locations, or show off their location in the region in a fun way. The applications could turn into some very aesthetic web design.

-Alex

Several years back we did some work for our local minor league hockey team. Not only did we have a lot of fun with the creative, but one of our interns got a chance to punch her best friend in the head. Mission accomplished. The work won numerous awards while helping the Brahmas sell quite a few tickets.