Faculty Posters

“Follow the sounds of my voice as I simultaneously pose you and ask you probing questions about 20 years worth of your life’s work.”

Columbia Business School had faculty member poster campaigns in the past. They were nice.

They were also completely anodyne.

In the mood board phases of this campaign, my team and I examined portraiture by accomplished photographers. Many of the reference pieces seemed to be destined for editorial spreads.

At some point, I realized I wanted to get close up; a shot taken from the chest-up, no power posing or blurred libraries allowed. We experimented with different lighting styles and eventually wound up constructing a "confession-style" booth, with black flags bookending the model, and filtered strobe lights above and below them like a lit canopy and computer console respectively.

Typographically, I lusciously sized the professor's names and had first and surnames locked into one another, taking advantage of each unique opportunity for typesetting.

Photography credits go to Laura Barisonzi and Jeffrey Schifman. Special thanks to Brett Essler, Laura Lechner, and Shakeela Najjar for their direction, leadership, assistance, and scheduling black magic. A shout out to all the makeup artists, photo assistants, and producers who made this possible. And a big thank you to the professors for letting me yell at them, ask them prodding questions about their research, and for letting me fuss about their hair.