head

Blu Dot Catalog

In 2007, Minneapolis based furniture company Blu Dot was looking to perform a face-lift on their catalog design. The result was a narrative, allowing the viewer to draw his or her own conclusions, relying heavily on photography. They also saw a niche, seldom do you see people interacting with the furniture, making the styling seem unrealistic. Blu Dot’s mantra to the new catalog was: be fun, and slightly irreverent; there needed to be a life to it; it’s supposed to make you smile.

To do so they hired a fashion photographer to shoot furniture, Dan Monick. Dan Monick was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. He graduated from Hampshire College with a BA in photography. For several years thereafter, he toured the country as drummer for various low rent rock bands, a lifestyle that afforded him plenty of opportunity to cultivate his love for something out of nothing philosophy. He now lives in Los Angeles and works as a photographer.

His work has been featured in numerous publications including Paper, Dwell, XXL, Rolling Stone, The Journal, Spin, Arkitip, Fader, and Vice. He also has a line of t-shirts produced by Blood Is The New Black.

Dan Monick truly made the catalog and shoot come to life. I was lucky enough to be a part of the 2007 photo—shoot and also making it to the 2009 catalog. It was an amazing experience to work with Blu Dot staff as well as Dan Monick. Dan would be able to have these amazing stream-of-consciousness, creating narratives for the models in order to extract the expression or mood  he wanted. Which, in turn made the furniture poses Blu Dot’s wanted narrative.