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As a graphic designer, photographer and video producer, I worked in California's Wine Country.

For over 30 years,
I provided print and
web graphics and photography for successful companies
and individuals.

Meet some of
my former clients
:

  • Alderbrook Winery
  • Bouchaine Vineyards
    and Winery
  • C.B. Tool Group
  • Chimney Rock Winery
  • Delta Machinery
  • Eberle Winery
  • Empire Manufacturing
  • Paperbacks Unlimited
  • Rutherford Hill Winery
  • Sanford Winery
  • Santa Rosa
    Junior College
  • Terlato Family
    Vineyards
  • Whitehall Lane
    Winery & Vineyards
  • Wine Shipping


Wine Photos

I enjoyed taking a concept, thinking of how
I could best express it to the viewer, then creating the photos or illustrations and putting them together with text in a maner which had clarity, impact and interest. I gave the viewer a distinct impression of the company and stimulate them to buy the client's products or use their services.

Harvest Photos

I created copyrighted image banks of photographs which enhanced the company's advertising and publicity releases for years to come.

Other Photos

Click on the images above to see small galleries of photos


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Commercial Photography and Graphic Design

Here's a small sample of the graphics and photography I can do for you.

I've been retired for more than ten years, but I did enjoy my career, and people still ask me questions about various aspects of it. Here's a very condensed autobiography of my career.

Selling a product or service requires images and words displayed in an attractive, compelling manner. That's what I offered. Potential customers must see a company's wares as being distinctive from those of the competition. Even when the product is in the customers' hands or they've left the sales floor, the graphics they have continue to represent the company.

I designed and created:    
  • Advertising, Instructional
    and Promotional Videos
  • Performance Videos
  • Brochures & Booklets
  • Magazine Advertisements
  • Point of Purchase Displays
  • Catalogs & Manuals
  • Sell Sheets & Folders
  • Rack Cards & Hang Tags
  • Product Packaging
  • Email Blasts
  • Architectural Signage
  • Logos & Stationery
  • Newsletters
  • Announcements
  • Calendars
  • Postcards & Mailers
  • Greeting Cards
  • Posters & Banners
  • Menus & Placemats
    ... whatever you need.
and I provided:    
  • Script Writing
  • Video Production
  • Video Editing
  • Product Photography
  • Bottle Shots
  • Lifestyle Photography
  • Event Photography
  • Food Photography
  • Interiors
  • Executive Portraiture
  • Studio or Location
    ... whatever you need.

Brochures and fliers, booklets and newsletters

These eye-catching, quality printed pieces depict some of the work I did in the wine industry. My skills increased sales of whatever products or services a company offered. People comment on the depth and richness of the documents I created. The viewer's eye is always drawn to the product.
A myriad of graphics designed and produced by Bruce Philpott


I conceived layouts for newsletters, such as these for several wine clubs, and provided compelling typography and original custom images for each newsletter issue.

Wine club newsletters designed and produced by Bruce Philpott


I created a sales brochure for Chimney Rock Winery's Elevage Blanc. Their tasting room manager liked my cover photo so much that he asked me to have 16"x 20" canvas prints made of it so they could sell them in his tasting room.

  Elevage Blanc Brochure

Canvas wall print from the brochure image

 

I enjoyed inventing graphics which drew people to special events. Even before the viewer read the text, they were sold on the event by the graphic imagery.

Wine club event advertisements



Package design, from concept to die cut

I created this triangular box and bottle for Empire Manufacturing's TopSaver. The distinctive package shape gives more "shelf face," permitting more sales information to be displayed. Since the die-cut package has a crease down the center of the right panel, it was the perfect spot for a large before/after photo demonstrating the product's effectiveness.
 
To show how easy their product was to use, I took step by step photos and put the instructions on the back of the box.   TopSaver package designed and produced by Bruce Philpott
TopSaver die cut  
 

Catalog production

The CB Tool Group offers thousands of products and accessories in their retail stores. I worked with them to produce this phone book size catalog, enabling them to put descriptions and photos of their products in the hands of their customers.
  CB Tool Group catalog designed and produced by Bruce Philpott


Products, places and food

The tasting room staff at Chimney Rock Winery asked me to create a "beauty shot" photo of their three primary red wines which they could sell as 18" x 24" posters.

In order to have the posters be as sharp as possible, I took the picture in three parts: bottom, middle and top. I combined these three images in Photoshop, achieving a sixty-four megapixel image. I used friends' lawbooks for the background, but replaced the lettering with titles and "authors" appropriate to the winery.

I liked the final image, so I've had a 24"x30" print made to hang in my office. In addition to the posters, the image has been printed on greeting cards and may be purchased as a glass serving platter in their tasting room. 


 

I photographed some small cakes to illustrate the birthday greetings emailed to wine club members each year with a birthday discount code.

At the request of members of the Photozo digital photography forum, I've written a short tutorial explaining how the candle animation was created. The tutorial can be found about half way down the list on my Tutorials Page.

Happy Birthday from Rutherford Hill
  Happy Birthday from Rutherford Hill
 

Food photography

A recipe is far more enticing with an actual photo of the food. Food photography requires special techniques and just the right equipment. People often look at one of my food photos and say, "That really makes me hungry!" For me that's the ultimate compliment. If they had simply admired the techniques I used, I wouldn't have accomplished my goal.


I was in the vineyards at dawn capturing candid photos of the grape harvest for use in publicity. These hard workers pick at a hectic pace from about 6:30 a.m. until 8:30 am.

2009 grape harvest images

The Terlato Wine Group had three of my harvest photos made into 5'x8' banners to decorate a harvest celebration dinner. I was really pleased with how well they turned out.

See other photos and the rest of the story here>>. 


Rutherford Hill Winery offers catered dinners in their wine aging caves. I took photos of some of their events for use in print material and on the web.

The caves are quite dim, as many elegant restaurants, so the shutter speed in these photos is nearly a full second.

I had to combine four extreme wide-angle photos to create the photo above, to let the viewer see down the length of two of the tunnels.

 


 

Executive portraiture and personnel photos

Portrait session with Mr. & Mrs. Copeland

I created publicity portraits of corporate executives and other key personnel. Here I'm creating one of several portraits of Gerret and Tatiana Copeland, owners of Bouchaine Winery.

 


Gerret and Tatiana Copeland
Owners of Bouchaine Winery, Gerret and Tatiana Copeland
 

 


Terlato Wine Group
Vice President
of Winemaking,
Doug Fletcher

  Doug Fletcher, Vice President of Winemaking


Marisa Taylor-Huffaker, Winemaker, Rutherford Hill Winery
Rutherford Hill Winemaker, Marisa Taylor
 

Bryan Parker, Winemaker, Alderbrook Winery
Alderbrook Winemaker,
Bryan Parker
 

Elizabeth Vianna, Winemaker, Chimney Rock
Chimney Rock Winemaker,
Elizabeth Vianna

I'm happy using available light (as that candid photo of Marisa), or using studio lights as I did in the photos taken in the dark barrel room.


I liked to allow my portrait subjects time to get comfortable
in front of the camera and I prefer setting up lighting which most compliments each face. In this case, Rutherford Hill Winery wanted portraits of their entire tasting room staff in
the 90 minutes before they opened in the morning, with no
two backgrounds alike. We had about 8 minutes per person.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was quite a hustle posing each person attractively and setting up my compact studio lighting to best describe the shapes of each of their faces while showing a bit of the tasting room behind each subject. We were all pleased with the results of this quick series of portraits, though. The winery uses these photos to assist each Wine Educator in selling their favorite group of wines. Sales have increased markedly since they began this program.

 

Composite photography

Often the image in my mind or in the client's imagination simply wasn't possible. That's when I combined images to yield what we had in mind.

Over time, I developed a library of images which could be used for a client for many diverse purposes. In this case, a photo I'd taken years previously made the perfect background to display a bottle of Chimney Rock wine.

Bottle photgraphy is a combination of artistry and technique. In this case, we didn't want their beautiful landscape and clouds to be reflected in the bottle, since it would distract from their label, so I created the product photo in the studio where I'm able to completely control the lighting and reflections.

I lit the bottle with extremely soft light and made sure the bottle was the only thing in focus. This draws the viewer's eye directly to the product in the scene.

 

 
I removed the white background from behind the studio scene and inserted my photo of the building, blurring it just enough to make it fit in with the studio product shot.

The winery's iconic tasting room building in the background is the white building on their label. The client's "impossible" photo is ready for use as a catalog cover, a poster, on their web site or for use in social media.

   

 
This image and others like it generated thousands of dollars in sales which would otherwise have gone to their competitors.

 

>> More Graphic Design and Photography>>

and (where applicable)
Rutherford Hill Winery, Chimney Rock Winery, Alderbrook Winery, Sanford Winery and/or the Terlato Wine Group
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