A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of working with MAYER to create the new campaign for this year's Charlie Awards! For those of you who aren't familiar, the Charlie Awards is an event that recognizes the exceptional contributions of the Twin Cities metro area food and restaurant industry. It's a pretty cool concept for the community. Basically, there are several categories that restaurants can enter and then the general public can vote on their favorites. Along with a panel of experts, the winners are chosen. We have ah-maz-ing food here in Minneapolis, and personally, I'm a big foodie, so this project was perfect for me! For the shoot, we collaborated with Open Arms of Minnesota, who so graciously invited us into their space to shoot, while still producing meals for that day! Open Arms is an incredible organization that I fell in love with, if you are thinking of volunteering, you should definitely check them out! We also assembled a dream-team for this! Our subjects were all previous winners of the Charlie Awards and some of the best in the restaurant industry! Michael Dodes styled the ladies in Joynoelle and Amber Rose & Susan Swanson beautified everyone to be camera ready! Jackie of Munster Rose styled our table and the wonderful people of Flashlight Photo Rental were a giant help for all of our gear!Of course, I couldn't pull a shoot like this off without an amazing team of my own. Thank you to Paul, Duane, and Marcie for lending a hand and making this all happen!
The official Charlie Awards campaign rolled out about a week ago at Le Meridian Chambers hotel and will be seen in all over the city, as well in local and regional publications over the next couple of months! Keep an eye out for it!
As a special little bonus, I had Chris Wegner come to our shoot and document some of the behind-the-scenes footage of what our day was like and also what it takes to pull of a shot like this! I absolutely love it!
Behind the Scenes // Charlie Awards Campaign from Photogen Inc on Vimeo.
