The party will be held from 6 to 9 PM at Stockland Martel’s gallery space: 345 E. 18th St., between 1st and 2nd avenues. To RSVP, drop a line with your details (name, title, and company) to thegallery@stocklandmartel.com. Hope to see you there!

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Maureen Martel.

From left: Bernd Schwarz, Hans Peter Weidle, Susan Weidle-Langenstein, and Maureen.

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Maureen and Katya Arsenieva, the photo editor at Stockland Martel, have been in Ditzingen, Germany, this week, on press with our new photo annual, SMart Book 2012. (See pics below.) The book—which is being printed by GZD—is coming out in late January, and we’re planning a big launch party for it in February.

The SMart Books take a good six months to produce, and while the core concept has remained the same—to showcase the work of each of our photographers—we always try a little twist with the copy, the design, or both. SMart Book 2011, for example, was printed with three different covers: by Lauren Greenfield, Roxanne Lowit, and Liz Von Hoene. All I can tell you about this year’s twist is that SMart Book 2012—designed by New York–based Design MW—is perhaps our most personal photo annual yet, and we’re excited to share it with you. More details to come in January…

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SMart Book 2011, with front and back cover by Lauren Greenfield.

SMart Book 2011, with front and back cover by Roxanne Lowit.

SMart Book 2011, with front and back cover by Liz Von Hoene.

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The concept for this year’s book is SMart Words. Here’s how Bill and Maureen explained it in the introduction:

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We’re strong believers in the principle that every photographer has to have a distinct point of view. As we were conceptualizing this year’s limited-edition SMart photo annual, we thought a lot about what our photographers stand for and who they are. And that’s how we arrived at SMart Words. Can a talent be summed up in three to seven words? We wonder what you think. —Bill Stockland and Maureen Martel

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Maureen and Katya Arsenieva, Stockland Martel’s photo editor, went on press in Germany to oversee the printing of the book. Here are some photos from their trip…

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Each year, the SMart Book features photos of all of the Stockland Martel staff. But this year, Art Streiber shot one of his famous ensemble portraits of the Stockland Martel family…

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The staff of Stockland Martel, photographed by Art Streiber in the garden at the agency's Gramercy Park offices.

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By the way, Design MW—longtime designers of our SMart Books—devised a clever system to present the SMart words. I won’t describe it here. It’s best that you discover it yourself:

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SMart Book: Lauren Greenfield cover

SMart Book: Roxanne Lowit cover

SMart Book: Liz Von Hoene cover

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Each year, we produce a collection of our photographers’ work in the form of a limited-edition book. Our latest volume, SMart Book 2010, has just been completed, and we’ll be unveiling it tonight from 6 to 8 at the Gallery @ Stockland Martel. The book represents the culmination of a lot of hard work over the past year, and we’re all very excited to show it off.

We’ll also be exhibiting highlights from SMart Book 2010 tonight, and many of the photographers will be coming in for the event. (If you haven’t already RSVPed, please email us at thegallery [at] stocklandmartel.com. We’d love to see you there.)

This year, we did our photo annual as a split run: One edition features a cover by Hans Gissinger, while the other is by Craig Cutler.

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I’ve posted both versions of the book—in their entirety—online: http://issuu.com/kristinafeliciano/docs/smartbook_gissinger_cover and http://issuu.com/kristinafeliciano/docs/stocklandmartel_cutler_cover.

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SMart Book 2010 was designed by our longtime collaborators design:mw, an award-winning design firm based in Tribeca. I asked founders JP Williams and Allison Muench Williams about how they approached this project. Here’s what they said:

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Stockland Martel offers a wide range of talent, and each artist brings a unique perspective to an image. So this year’s SMart Book is all about the artists’ personality and individuality.

We used a variety of design devices to bring this idea to life and create a truly beautiful book for 2010, including…

• An “iconic” quote on each photographer’s opening spread that feels bold, yet friendly and approachable. We coupled that with generous white space to allow the page and the image to breathe.

• Two covers that are different but have a common thread. We wanted the covers to speak to the idea that each artist possesses an “individual spark of creativity” when making a picture.

• Mirror end papers, to emphasize the idea of personality/individuality. Photography is all about looking and discovering, and that action is a very personal process for both photographer and viewer.

• A flash of neon orange on the spine, in order to set SMart Book 2010 apart on the shelf.

• A timeless typeface. Like a timeless image, the typeface should reflect the moment but remain enduringly beautiful. This is MW’s design mantra!!!

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Thanks, JP and Allison (and Stacy Barnes, who works with them and who helped me with this post). Looking forward to seeing you tonight!

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