I was delighted to be asked
to take commercial photographs around Hartlepool, Gateshead, Sunderland, Middlesbrough and surrounding
areas for accountancy firm Evolution LLP recently.
As well as being a
photography partner to many marketing and PR agencies, I also work directly for
clients and this commission came via Evolution’s marketing partner. A brand
refresh meant some new advertising photography over the north east and involved a lot of careful planning and
several meetings to establish the look and feel that would work best.
As well as using customers
to tell Evolution’s story, we opted to go with a technique known as
de-saturating the colour, to give a stylised, almost black and white look. This
fitted well with the colour palette used by the web designers and lines up with
the company’s new brand identity and push to promote its dynamic accountancy practice.
Being involved with the
planning process for a photoshoot is really useful, it means I can get to grips
with what the client is looking for, and suggest some appropriate
approaches.
Several meetings with Evolution staff
and its marketing and web experts led to a schedule of commercial photography at six client locations including Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Gateshead, Brotton and Skelton.
Each location involved
taking photographs of Evolution’s client in their natural habitat and included
shots on a factory floor, at a creative agency and even a rally school. I gave
the client several variations of shot at each venue, to make sure the photos
would be suitable for a range of print and online uses.
The clients are all highly
successful business people and I went for strong, engaging shots with subtle
backgrounds - what I call ‘hero’ shots. Having my mobile studio equipment with
me meant I could dismiss the use of flash in favour of using all the natural
light available and making the shots gritty and ‘real’.
As well as the portrait
shots I was asked to cover the rebrand launch event for 150 invited guests. The
event had been booked at Crathorne Hall in North Yorkshire but a huge fire
there the night before saw a last-minute switch to photograph the event Wynyard Hall in County Durham and the event
organisers did a great job of swapping venues without a hitch.
As I moved round the room
photographing key speakers and guests I was pleased to see how well my shots had
worked on pop up banners and in large screen format as the audience were
treated to Evolution’s new brand film.
I was very happy to have
been entrusted with producing the imagery to sum up Evolution’s fresh, engaging
and contemporary new look, and I wish the firm and its clients all the very
best for the future.
