I said the perfect imagery would be the work of Alexander Calder using his mobiles or stabiles. Not only did Calder invent an entirely new category of art -- the mobile and stabile, Lewis and Roca actually owned one of his mobiles. Calder's status as an artist and the balance and harmony he created with his work and the continual changes the art would make as it moved became the perfect visual representation for our Lewis and Roca concepts. The big question became, would the Calder Foundation allow us to use his work to promote a business?
The only way to find out was to place a call to them and explain what I was thinking of doing and how I would like to use Calder's work. They were very open to the idea and gave me open access to all of his images to create the print campaign. I negotiated the usage through Artist Rights and the Calder Foundation in New York for the usage of three Calder images per year, with a starting period of three years.
Needless to say, when we presented the work to Kristen, she loved it and set up a second meeting with the managing partners. They also approved the conceptual approach pending the outcome of the Calder negotiations, which I had already been obtained in principle their consent and fee structure. Better to know that you can do what you've promised before you find out you can't.
The only problem along the way was that the majority of slides we had access to through the Foundation were all shot in the open with trees, bushes, bird crap, and buildings all around the majority of sculptures. All of these things needed to be removed and a neutral background would be created (also by me) so that the beauty of the sculptures could play out and the copy my partner Mark Itkowitz would write could be be easily read.
I spent a morning outlining the first image "Blue Feather" and create the type of background that would be just as beautiful as the art, but that I could control along with allowing me to add multiple shadows and a surface for the artwork to sit on. Below is what I created and what Lewis and Roca approved and supported for the few years I was at E.B. Lane.