Check out these photos of New Year’s Eve in Tacoma—First Night—which we shot for Cult Tacoma.

Happy New Year!

When thinking to ourselves of a few of our favorite things, we often find “food” and “music” sitting at the top of the list.  The mad genius Bryce Lathrop has invented a new way one may experience both at the same time—his one-of-a-kind gastro tour company White Moustache (“Seattle’s only eating tour on wheels”) now offers a Musical Plates tour which pairs lucky eaters/listeners with a local, independent band and their epicurean tastes.  Bryce hand-picks courses from his favorite Seattle eateries inspired by the favorite foods of each band member.

Cruising through the twinkling lights of Seattle’s skyline and diverse hoods with some of our newest friends, an incredible band—Tacoma’s Goldfinch—and some mind-blowing food was about as serendipitous as we’d like a moment to get!

The Warehouse approached us and asked if we’d like to shoot a studio session with their upcoming house show headliners Big Sur.

Of course we jumped at the opportunity—we thought it would be a great video to add to Cult Tacoma and we loved the idea of being in the studio with the musicians as they created their sublime folk pop.

The show itself was equally gorgeous—take a peep at this cover of one of our favorite songs by one of our favorite bands—The Pixies’ Wave of Mutilation :

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“Waves of Mutilation” by
The Pixies

music by
Big Sur

“part 1″ opening music by
The Crying Shame

presented by
The Warehouse

live sound by
Luke Stevens

Doe Bay Festival is becoming one of our favorite weekends of the year.  We spent most of it behind the camera and created this short video and collection of photos for Cult Tacoma.  See below for the photos . . .

If you came here looking for Belle Creative, you’re at the correct corner of the internet—Belle Creative is now The Art Dept.!

The Art Dept. is a boutique creative firm comprised of an extended family of artists—designers, filmmakers, writers, photographers, typographers, musicians—pooling their creative talents to tell original stories.  Since its inception in 2005 (as Belle Creative) by Sarah and Peter Berkley in Sonoma, CA, The Art Dept. has developed custom creative content for clients from the Brooklyn fashion industry to California’s artisan food and wine culture to the Northwest music scene.

Mary Berkley Shadley, Peter’s sister and an accomplished graphic designer, is a recent addition to the firm as Design Director.  We also often tap our talented network of close friends and family—such as product designer (and brother-in-law) Karson Shadley and musician brothers Max and Ryan Lynch—to broaden our scope of work.

Now based both in the Seattle area—Tacoma, WA—and the Bay Area—Oakland, CA—The Art Dept. continues to develop a wide range of creative products with a focus on short videos, creative writing and print design.

Please browse the site to see work completed and please don’t hesitate to contact us if you’d like to work together!

Turkey and Gewürz—love at first sight.

Gundlach Bundschu Winery is not a winery known for its subtlety. Boasting every sort of farce and frolick under its 152-year-old belt— from hijacking the Napa Wine Train to kidnapping Sir Richard Branson—Gun Bun, the oldest family-run winery in California, is rather adored for its puckish reputation as much as for legendary wines such as Gewürztraminer. (In Wine Country, there’s an inveterate truth that you’ll surely fail a sobriety test if you can’t properly pronounce “Gundlach Bundschu Gewürztraminer.” )

So, in the end, it only made sense that the fine people at Gun Bun called us up the other day to impart, “We want to dress Jeff Bundschu up in a turkey costume and have you film some videos about how well holiday turkeys go with our Gewürztraminer!”

Above is the first of three short videos we shot and edited about a turkey and his unquenchable thirst for Gundlach Bundschu Gewürztraminer.

And below are the second and third—Turkey Bowling taken to a whole new level and a refreshing plunge into Gewurz, respectively:

“Dress in denim and dripping in gold”—the theme of this year’s Sonoma Valley Muse.  Using these two elements and some historical pictures of Sonoma’s legendary Nicholas Carriger and his estate, Mary designed these eye-grabbing and playful invitations for the annual Sonoma Community Center fundraiser.

Here’s to Sonoma Valley’s colorful legacy—carried on brilliantly by the SCC!