Harley-Davidson 2002 P&A Catalog
Role — Design, Art Direction
Agency — VSA Partners
This is the job where I first learned how to work on and complete a very large scale project in a very short period of time. In just three months in 2001, we shot and designed the parts and accessories catalog, a 768-page book of bikes, parts and accessories, that is sometimes referred to as the “Harley Wish Book.” To pull it off, we built an onsite office and photo studio inside a warehouse in Milwaukee where, for speed and secrecy, everything needed to happened behind closed doors.
Up to ten photosets were running at once, with photographers and their assistants shooting over a hundred motorcycles and thousands of parts. In another corner, the Design Lead and I sat at computers putting together page layouts and adding copy emailed in by our writers in Chicago. In a constant stream, photographers and assistants brought us Polaroids for feedback and approval, then shot and even processed the film on site. The clients reviewed laser copies as quickly as we could print them out—everything happening in sync inside our studio warehouse. After three months of production, we moved to Kentucky where the presses ran for four weeks straight. We were on-site at the plant the whole time with two other colleagues, and for the first time I saw what a million copies of something looks like—it’s terrifying and awesome.