Founders

Kirk Steven Lyford
Kirk Lyford attended college at CSU Northridge on a golf scholarship while majoring in Graphic Design. He was selected as a College All-American golfer, and was a member of two national championship teams (DIV II).

Kirk started his professional career as a graphic designer. Over the years, he won numerous awards for his creative work in a variety of industries including aviation, motorcycle, music, chemical, and software. In addition to his 20 years as a designer, Kirk also published a lifestyle magazine in the Sierra Foothills of Northern California.

In 1994, Kirk Lyford, Larry Willett, and Michael Schumacher founded Vivid Details, Inc., which helped ignite the royalty-free stock photo craze. In addition to stock photography, they created many custom image CDs for Adobe, Macromedia, Painter, HP, and others.

In 1997, Vivid Details created their first consumer software program called Test Strip, an Adobe Photoshop plug-in designed for photographers. Test Strip won numerous awards, including the 1998 Digital Media Award, the 1998 MacWorld Eddy Award, and Best of Show at MacWorld and Seybold. Olympus and Epson both bundled Test Strip with select digital photography products.

In 2003, Kirk founded PhotoTune Software and developed two popular digital imaging programs. 20/20 Color MD worked like an eye test to quickly color correct an image, and SkinTune automatically corrected a portrait based on race. In August, 2007, OnOne Software of Portland, Oregon acquired PhotoTune Software.

Kirk has been published widely, and is an inventor, having been granted U.S. Patent #7,054,484 for the color correction technology used in 20/20 Color MD.

Charles Larry Willett
Larry Willett spent most of his career as a commercial photographer who is most renowned for his decade of work on the Honda Motor account through Grey Advertising, Dailey & Associates, and Chiat-Day. But, Honda was by no means his only client.

After leaving the military, Larry started his photography career shooting editorial images for magazines like Cycle Magazine, Car & Driver, Hot Rod, Sunset, and Power Boat Magazine, to name just a few. In fact, he has over a hundred magazine covers to his credit. During his thirty year career, Larry has photographed for some of the world’s most prestigious advertising agencies, including J. Walter Thompson, Ogilvy & Mather, Saatchi & Saatchi, McCann Erickson, Young & Rubicam, Foote Cone & Belding, along with those mentioned above. His client list is what most commercial photographers can only dream about: Honda, Suzuki, General Motors, Nissan, Mazda, Bank of America, Georgia Pacific, Union Oil, Boise Cascade, General Mills, Budweiser, Michelob, Gallo, Disney, Six Flags, Mattel, and many, many more.

One day, at a prearranged photo shoot, Larry met Kirk Lyford, a young art director. Their chance meeting forged a long-time working relationship, friendship, and business partnership. In 1994, Kirk Lyford, Larry Willett, and Michael Schumacher founded Vivid Details, Inc., which helped ignite the royalty-free stock photo craze. In addition to stock photography, they created many custom image CDs for Adobe, Macromedia, Painter, HP, and others.

In 1997, Vivid Details created their first consumer software program called Test Strip, an award-winning Photoshop plug-in designed exclusively for photographers.

Now, Larry and Kirk are combining their unique creative talents to create InTownLive.