Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Bob Dinetz | Episode 968
Bob Dinetz is a member of The Potter’s Studio in Berkeley, California and is trained as a graphic designer. Collecting Japanese and American pottery inspired Bob to explore making pottery of his own. The pieces Bob makes combine simple, modern forms with elegant, layered surfaces.
SPONSORS
You can help support the show!
GRPotteryForms.com
Number 1 brand in America for a reason. Skutt.com
For all your ceramic needs go to Georgies.com
Does your graphic design background influence the presentation of your pieces at all?
Completely, yeah. And that’s been a really fun part of it for me is the branding part of it because that is what I do as a real job. And the photography has been super fun and settling up an amature little studio in the basement, taking photos and that whole presentation of it has been a really satisfying part of the process. It’s almost better than the making sometimes.
Do you find that presentation for social media…do you think one should pay special attention to make sure it is good?
I think so. It’s important to me. I am amazed at how people can be really casual about it sometimes. I wish I could be, and just not care and take a phone picture with a semi busy background. For some reason I can’t get myself to do it. So many years of graphic design and trying to communicate clearly and all that stuff I shoot the pieces usually in a studio clean background. Sometimes I take photos closer to where I make the work so it isn’t always the same thing over and over.
Is having variety an important part of the formula to attract consumers? If there is a formula?
I think there’s a range. A few different looks. There’s the clean studio, finished piece. There’s the work in progress on the wheel. There’s work in progress that’s drying where maybe I want to show multiples of the same thing. But not twenty-five different styles because that might be confusing. I am just thinking about social media, and I am no expert but you want it to be a little bit recognizable as your work and your presentations. So I have a few buckets that these photographs sort of fit in.
In branding there’s recognition and placement, and I’m curious how do those two relate to each other in terms of placement and recognition as being the feel or the aesthetic?
Yeah, the recognition part or maybe both of those. it’s a visual voice that you feel comfortable speaking in. I take photographs that look like this. The work itself has a certain range that fits within and that becomes recognizable and that becomes the brand. It’s something that you do naturally and that you feel comfortable doing. It’s your visual voice whether it’s the photographs or the work itself.
Would you recommend to people who do not have a branding background take a photography class?
I don’t know if I could recommend that. I guess it could be for some people if they were really interested in it. I try to keep the photographs and the equipment super simple. There’s nothing expensive going on there or anything tricky. It’s one light and a paper background as far as those studio shots. The ones that are in the pottery studio are different but yeah, if you think it would help.
What’s going on in your studio now that’s got you excited and what’s going on in your studio that’s got you challenged?
I just finished a bunch of projects so the one that came to mind when you said excited was a series of lamps and that’s what that video was with the screwdriver. It’s eight lamps, four pairs I had to make that are going to go in a hotel called Single Thread in Healdsburg, California. And they were kind enough to ask me to make these lamps and to make pairs is a challenge because they have to be exactly the same height and width and al that kind of stuff. And that was a real challenge and I will be delivering them soon.
Book
Ninth Street Women by Mary Gabriel
Contact
Instagram: @bobdinetz