Yvette Monell
Media; Media: Other; Visual Arts; Visual Arts: Other; Visual Arts: Photography; Life Style Photographer
“I never want to be tied down to one particular idea or concept. It takes strategy to reach a particular audience. It’s a God-given talent. You have got to captivate onlookers—give clients the tools to get the audience they want.” -Yvette Monell
Yvette Monell is a photographer, graphic designer, and magazine publisher. Her work, of commercial and individual subjects, can be seen locally and nationally. The titles she’s founded and published include St Augustine Magazine, Old City Life, Gallop, and Pittsburgh Style. St Augustine Magazine (SAM) will reemerge digitally Summer 2018 along with her weekly email blast of events and social scene coverage. Other than that; she loves Saint Augustine and its people, has a cat named Bikini Kitty, is an advocate for suffers of Vitiligo, eating and cooking, training horses, she’s pasture-raised, no MSG and gluten-free.
Age 19 was when Yvette seriously took on her love of fashion. Working retail sales was not enough to satisfy her passion. About the time she landed the contract to coordinate the Mall Fashion Shows she began working as a fashion-stylist for catalog photographers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Here she developed a keen eye for the intricate detail, and a clear focus of how film gets developed, what it takes to make a really quality photograph. These were the days of medium format cameras and darkrooms, when it took discipline to get the shot in 12 to 36 frames per roll.
Inspired by the most successful fashion photographers in the industry; Bruce Weber, Herb Ritts and Steven Meisel who’s images appeared on the pages of, sometimes five-inch thick, Vogue and ELLE magazines that came by mail. She loved everything about magazines. New fashion trends made always-scouting potential models for runway and print assignments the norm. Working with raw talent evolved into Yvette’s teaching the ‘what-to-dos,’ which lead to she and her husband, also a photographer, opening a modeling agency with a complete photography studio and darkroom.
Along came the industry milestone product that changed history, the insanely great Apple Macintosh! Adobe’s Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat paired with the unmistakable tune of dial-up Internet—opened the way to bring creative concepts to fruition. Yvette now had the ability to work with both text and images. To point, click, cut, paste gave freedom to capture and communicate ideas through her photography with the layout of printed pages and websites. She and her husband met a woman with a marketing company the three partnered-up to create Pittsburgh Style Magazine. This was a lifestyle magazine with all original photography and content. They even created the display advertising, collaborating closely with clients to decide how images and text will go together. In addition to their being magazine advertisers many clients contracted to do their company branding from start to finish with the trio.
Time and life changes eventually brought her to St. Augustine, FL. When she arrived here there was no city magazine to be had. There was so much to learn about the wonderful Old City so Yvette took an idea, her ten-year-old computer and made it a mission: To reflect St. Augustine’s positive image, inspiring readers to explore their surroundings and create a joyful and meaningful life. Yvette launched Old City Scene magazine in 2006. She changed the title to Old City Life for the magazine’s one-year anniversary. Ruinous personal circumstances lead to the sell of Old City Life magazine in 2013. St Augustine Magazine (SAM) will reemerge digitally Summer 2018 along with her weekly email blast of local events and social scene coverage of Northeast Florida.
When it comes to photography her unique approach captures iconic images of local personalities, situations, scenes, and events. She is passionate when creating a custom layout and production design for magazines, advertisements, and logos with an authentic style that communicates ideas of her clients bringing their brand’s voice to life.
