Taking a life lesson from the people who brought us peanut butter cups, CHR!S SM!TH took the two things he loved most, music and visual arts, and combined them to make a whole that was even more enjoyable than its parts.

With a background in radio, entertainment writing, club DJing and concert booking, Sm!th stumbled into the world of graphic design by making posters for the concerts he booked. He eventually learned that designing posters was more fun than arguing over money with booking agents. That initiated a hiatus from the music business which launched Sm!th into the land of professional graphic design where he worked for about 5 years managing the Art Departments for IT Firms and Ad Agencies. Preferring to use his own photos over stock images, it was during this time that Sm!th began to teach himself photography.

But eventually the world of music called him back to the fold. So Sm!th took what he'd learned from being an art director and started his own company known as funkfactor. It was with funkfactor that Sm!th at last merged his two greatest passions and at the same time doubled his love of life! Now he spends his creative energy developing CD designs, websites, photo shoots and more for members of the music industry.

This change in career has been very kind to Sm!th as he's won numerous awards including five East Coast Music Awards for both Photography and Graphic Design, four Visual Artist of the Year awards from Music Nova Scotia as well as three Best Music Photographer awards from The Coast. Sm!th also runs Battle SNAP - a photo competition of his own creation, and is a PHOTOPOLIS Committee Member, ECMA Awards Committee Member, and he's the designer for both the Halifax International Busker Festival and the Ha!ifax ComedyFest.









Best Music Photographer of the Year - 2010
The Coast - Best of Music Reader's Poll






Visual Artist of the Year
2010 East Coast Music Awards



This is Ray. We hung out a lot at the 2010 ECMAs.
If you were there, ya probably met him.






Visual Artist of the Year
2009 Music Nova Scotia Awards



Photo: Scott Blackburn

I wore my Jason mask from Friday The 13th when I ran up to accept my award.
Don't ask me why... I just do these things.







Best Music Photographer of the Year - 2009
The Coast - Best of Music Reader's Poll






Photographer of the Year &
Graphic Designer of the Year
2009 East Coast Music Awards



Check it out, I won two awards this year. ECMA book ends!






Visual Artist of the Year
2008 Music Nova Scotia Awards









Best Music Photographer of the Year
The Coast - 2008 Best of Music Reader's Poll








Photographer of the Year
2008 East Coast Music Awards



ECMA talley:
I got an award
The folks I work with had 29 nominations and won 11 awards
I had an exhibition with 14 photos, 7 got stolen
Overall it was a great weekend






Visual Artist of the Year
2007 Music Nova Scotia Awards



Woohoo. I won! And I had an awesome weekend at White Point Resort... the magical land of beer and bunnies!

The panel discussion I took part in went well too. I had lots of cool feedback which was great. It's good to know we weren't just rambling on wasting people's precious drinking time!






Best Music Photographer of the Year
The Coast - 2007 Best of Music Reader's Poll



Check it out... I won BEST LOCAL MUSIC PHOTOGRAPHER at The Coast's 2007 Best of Music awards. The actual award is an old 8 Track... pretty damn cool. After the awards a big o'le crowd of us got smashed and did karaoke. I sang Add it up by the Violent Femmes.






ECMA Graphic Designer of the Year
2007 East Coast Music Awards



Last year I was nominated for Photographer and Graphic Designer of the Year and got neither. This year I got one of the two, so I'm officially 50% less of a loser than last year. Not bad!






Visual Artist of the Year
2006 Music Nova Scotia Awards



Here's me celebrating with a tasty beer.
Oh... and that's the award I'm drinking out of.
Yeah, you can't take me anywhere, I know.






This photo was printed in the 2004 American Photo Reader's Contest issue.

It was a really nice pat on the back seeing as over 50,000 other photos from around the world were also entered.





As for the photo itself, it's not make-up as I am sometimes asked. He's a friend of mine who got swarmed by a group of people while walking home one night. They caught him off guard and pushed him down at which time he basically skidded across the pavement on his face. Once he started to fight back, they ran away like the cowards they were! So he successfully defended the $8 he had on him, ha. Unfortunately his face was a little worse for wear.

He's fine now though. He heals REALLY fast!!



Alert The Medic - Press photos
Banshee - CD design, CD & press photos
Barley & the Durt - CD design, CD & press photos
Bucket Truck - CD photos
Catherine MacLellan - CD design, CD & press photos
Christa Borden - Web design
The Contact - Press photos
The Cottars - CD & press photos
Dave Gunning - Press photos
The Divorcees - CD design, CD & press photos
DRUM! - Live photos
Duane Andrews - CD & press photos
Greyskull - CD design, CD & press photos
Hey Rosetta! - Press photos
Jamie Sparks - Press photos
Jamie Walsh - CD design, CD & press photos
Jill Porter - Press photos
Joel Plaskett - Live & press photos & New Years poster design
John Hughes - CD photos
Jon McKeil - Press photos
Kendra MacGillivray - CD design, CD & press photos
Kevin Davison - CD design, CD & press photos
The Letter Unfolds - CD photos
Mardeen - Press photos & web design
Matt Andersen - Press photos
Matt Mays and El Torpedo - CD & press photos
The Novaks - CD design, CD & press photos
Patrick Boyle - CD & web design, CD & press photos
Pogey - CD design, CD & press photos
Ross Neilsen - CD design, CD & press photos, & web design
Ryan Cook & Sunny Acres - Press photos
Sierra Noble - Press photos
Shanneyganock - Press photos
The Superfantastics - Press photos
Squid - DVD photos
Tim Chaisson & Morning Fold - Press photos
Thom Swift - CD design, CD & press photos
Two Hours Traffic - Press photos
Wintersleep - Press photos

Nokia - Photos for international ad campaign
Junofest 2006 - Ads, banners, t-shirts, posters, postcards, etc.
Music Nova Scotia - Photos for website, brochures, posters, etc
MusicNL - Website design
Halifax Pop Explosion - Official Photographer
Halifax International Busker Festival - Brochure, poster and website design
Ha!ifax ComedyFest - Brochure, poster and website design
Photopolis: Haifax Photography Festival - Brochure, poster, website design and board member
Musicstop - Tradeshow photos
Molson Canadian - Ad photos & design
Oxfam - Concert for Asia photos


Photos published in:
American Photo
Billboard
Exclaim
Chart
Gasoline Magazine
The National Post
The Globe and Mail
The Coast - cover shot
Halifax Magazine - cover shot
Daily News, Halifax - cover shot
HFX
Boom
The Independent
The Newfoundland Herald - cover shot
The Evening Telegram
Current
The Gazette
and many more I'll never see