Trade Secret Taps You for First Project

Trade Secret Cards, a new company based in California, approached me last fall with a pretty cool idea. They wanted to create a series of cards (think high-end baseball cards -- thick, glossy, etc.) but with an added twist.

That twist is where you come in. Hit the jump for the deets.
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It's Not Me, It's You

They at first wanted to do a series of cards featuring my work, with a photo on front and some On-Assignment-style info and diagrams on the back.

"Boring, Sidney."

Anyone who reads the site sees my stuff all of the time. What can we do to add a little more cowbell?

What about the readers' stuff, we thought. The Strobist Reader Gallery boasts some of the coolest ALT_Lighting_Flash_Off-camera stuff around. That's who you'd wanna showcase.

So that's exactly what they did. Their very first series of cards comprises 24 images chosen from the reader gallery. They licensed the photos and interviewed the photogs about how the photos were made.

In the deck you'll find shots from people like auto-wunderkind Ken Brown, Danny Ngan, Joshua Targownik and others. In all, 24 flashes of inspiration from the coolest group of open-source lighting guys on the net -- you guys.

The stock is thick, the finish is glossy and the repro is art book quality. They used the Strobist name, and I wrote the forward. But beyond that the spotlight is on you.

FWIW, I am not tied to them financially. Didn't think it was appropriate, seeing as you guys did all of the work. (I knew I shoulda gotten that MBA.)

What's next for them? Maybe a deck on reading body language at a singles bar. Or a field guide to identifying zombies. Who knows. I just know we were first.

If you are interested, give 'em a look, here.