We just got back to Chicago from a shoot for Firestone mud-terrain tires. I was sitting at my desk, scrolling through 4.5 zillion photos from our photographer Jimmy Krantz when I came across this one. It just stopped me. Jim got so much mud kicked up on his lens right before the shot, so he had to wipe it down and reset. But this happened in the split second before all that. It’s beautiful the way the edges of the mud splat burn yellow, orange, and blue from the light. How the hexagonal shapes of the mud refract the sun. Oddly enough, the tire was perfectly framed within all this chaos. And you just know it created the mess. The client wanted the big product shot with the tire heroically situated center frame, so I knew this photo wouldn’t work for the assignment. I printed it out anyway and pinned it on the wall. My boss thought it was really cool and Jeremy wrote a great line for it. The client agreed to run it in addition to the other layouts. It’s just a print ad, but it’s one of my favorite ads.

Lurzer's Archive No 1.1806

Made a Leo Burnett Chicago

AD: Colleen Horne

CW: Jeremy Adams

ECD: Mikal Pittman

Photographer: Jimmy Krantz