At the end of every week at Glaviano's studio, the accumulated pile of photo copies, laser copies and polaroids would be tucked away in a suspension file - probably never to be seen again. They were unprofessional and did not fit the normal card filing system. Many studios just threw them away.
"Likewise with advertising agencies, when casting models for a commercial, the agency would select the best cards to send to the client," Peter says. "They would not dream of sending a Xerox." One might have thought that agencies would ensure that all their models had a card before going out on go-see's, but apparently this is not so.
"The majority of these new models are still at school," says Peter, ..."so not only is the expense of a composite card a problem, particularly a colour one, but there is a large amount of wastage as the minimum order is 500-1000 copies. A different hairstyle and the card is useless! The time involved in printing a colour card also makes it prohibitive as these girls only have short holidays in which to develop their career."
So, having established the problems, how did Peter go about solving them? "Well, we set about researching the available technology to see what would enable us to produce small amounts of high quality cards in a very short time (less than 48 hours). We had to employ special technicians and buy vast new machinery - the rest was trial and error! However, being a photographic system, it is fast, produces small quantities in every size up to A3, is relatively cheap per copy and has fantastic quality," he enthuses. " A model can have as few as 100 cards within 48 hours for just £80 including VAT and express delivery, and anything more gets progressively cheaper".
Because 'Go-See'® cards are actually colour photographs the quality is superb. And making a black and white photo more interesting is easy with 'Go-See'® cards. At no extra charge the photo can be reproduced in blue's, purple's, brown's or any one of 100 tints - and every conceivable type of lettering is available. All in all it has to be the best £80 worth of publicity material around.
It is worth mentioning here that a 'Go-See'® card is NOT a 'composite' or index card. It is intended to be used more as an announcement. "I believe that there are no more than 100 people in any given city that have the power to make a model's career take off, and the 'Go-See'® card was invented for those people", Peter explains. "Therefore we needed a system that could make small quantities of 100-250. It is simply the best way of leaving one photo which incorporates all the model's details (like a mini poster or flyer) with the people who, hopefully, will be impressed enough to call back to do tests at some future date. It is the photos from those tests that become the model's first 'composite®' or index card. But a model may never get that far without leaving something worthwhile on the first visit."
The big question is, are the cards proving successful? "I'm delighted to say that they do seem to be," Peter says. "For example, in just the first few months of her career, a 'Go See' card for Frederique, of Models 1 New Faces, was all she needed to reach the big time on the agencies main board. In fact we developed our first mini headsheet in full colour for Models 1 New Faces, which was mailed out to a carefully selected client list along with an introduction letter.
The result was tremendous and the success rate of converting these schoolgirls to professional models was probably unsurpassed by any other agency in 1988."
Apart from new, young models, who else Is using 'Go-See® cards?
"They can be used for many situations," Peter explains. "For instance, big models like Patti Hansen and Yasmin Parvaneh (Le Bon) do not need to make a new composite card when they move from one city to another or change agencies. They simply send out an announcement card to a few important clients and the rest of the country finds out right away from the magazines. "But it's the specialist market that really benefits from the 'Go-See® card. Photographers use it to exhibit their work or to announce that they are with a new agent. Hand models, make up artists and stylists will mainly use it as a hand out to potential clients and runway models will send 100 copies to their show agent in Paris or Milan. They are also ideal for glamour models.
"Many make-up artists and photographers were thrilled by their first 'Go-See'® card because the colour is so fantastic, no details are lost and even the really small type is crisp."
