We worked with the brand, its agencies and fashion photographer, Kristian Schuller, on the cross-media campaign to launch the impressively smart phone. With a seamless combination of photography, CGI and VFX, the vibrant global campaign, playing on Vertu’s English heritage, launched across digital and print media ahead of the Christmas present buying season.

With magazine spreads in the luxury and lifestyle press ahead of Christmas, Vertu’s lead digital agency, AKQA, created a microsite and social media content. TJ worked closely with Vertu and both agencies to guarantee a truly integrated campaign.

Planning the print and digital executions in harmony, the CGI elements including the product and butterflies were mapped out in advance to enable to renowned photographer Kristian Schuller to be creative on set, in full knowledge of the technical requirements. TJ Technical Director, David Wortley, provided VFX supervision on the three majestic sets; handling the pre-visualisation, tracking and advising on set assembly. Once the environments were shot, the award-winning studio was then able to integrate the phones, add the effects and control the post-production in-house.

Each Constellation smartphone is built from fine materials, handmade in England by a single craftsman. The luxurious calf leather selected for its feel and natural grain, the polarizing sapphire crystal screen and titanium case were all reproduced in CGI by TJ to exacting details.

“Supplied with CAD data, we created a 3D model that includes the subtleties of manufacturing and handcrafting that make a product look authentic.” David Wortley, TJ’ Technical Director, explains. “Creating the hand stitched calf leather, grade 5 titanium and sapphire crystal, this 3D model is indistinguishable from the real thing. It is used across all media so we had to develop the virtual materials at extremely high levels of detail and to large resolutions to ensure the quality is maintained close up.” The smartphone looks immaculate within the three larger than life fantasy tales across the campaign, from print, digital, interactive and in-store and across the microsite.

The subtleties of the motion elements bring the print layouts to life on screen, a strong example of premium integrated campaign design, without the need for gimmicks. ‘Extraordinary Craftsmanship’ is set in a couture factory. A lady inspired by the couture house is sitting on the sewing machine, with butterflies flying from the machine onto the larger than life dress worn by a cat. Wortley continues, “We built CGI butterflies to flutter around the dress and added animation to create movement, depth and realism. Repurposing the core 3D phone asset we built for the stills also enabled us to easily animate these elements for the digital executions of the campaign.”

Another of Schuller’s visions is a masculine, powerful rhino sitting on his motorbike. He is an eccentric character, sitting in the stately home. VFX such as the smoke were added to the motion version of this image, maximising the use of assets to support Vertu’s brand identity and key messaging.

The campaign is a striking example of how CGI and traditional photography can work hand-in-hand to deliver highly creative multi-platform campaigns and how one studio can help agencies and brands come together on this exemplary cross-platform campaign.

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Landscapes with a twist strike a cord with drivers in this far-reaching press and poster campaign. JWT’s concept required real and imagined worlds to unite.

We worked up a 3D model to prove the concept at pre-production stage, and then Andy Glass went to shoot at Atlantic Road, Norway, and in the Docklands, London, whilst we developed the CGI. This seamless integration of disciplines, and a little retouching magic, shows how an intelligent approach from the start can bring a concept alive.

We were approached by one of our long-term partner photographers, Andy Glass, armed with a project from JWT for their client Shell, and were instantly attracted to the strong visual concept for this press and poster campaign. There was no doubt that a strong partnership between photography and CGI was needed to achieve this creative imagery.

The brief was to produce 2 still shots, one on the Atlantic Road in Norway and the other in the Docklands, London, each requiring a photographic backplate with a CGI hero element to be built and superimposed by our retouch team. We created a test using location photographs and a simple 3D model to prove that we could achieve such seamless integration of looping CGI roads into photography; thus awarding us the project!

Remote-desktop viewing allowed us to communicate with Andy real-time so that he could direct our CGI artist back in the studio to see how different angles would look with different lenses.

Entering the parameters of Andy’s Phase One IQ180 camera, we could place the camera anywhere without having to move an entire crew around, find the best lens avoiding any perspective distortion and use our GPS calibrated sun system to show what time of day would capture the best light.

As everything had been well thought out and planned, the retouching of these shots was straightforward. The backplates were comped and a large Yacht that had moored up in our spiral shot was removed. Andy captured the vehicles retrospectively, once the CG scene setups were approved, so the cars sat perfectly within each scene.

The result is two stunning images that are a perfect example of CGI and photography working hand in hand. Andy Glass worked closely with our retouch team to direct the shots and supply pre-comps and comments at each round of feedback. The whole process was very smooth and with everything captured in correct perspective, the elements naturally sat together, adding the extra 10% of realism which is essential to make these composites of images look real.

The campaign is running globally in press and poster including 48sheet billboards.

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“Ad agency, HW&H approached Taylor James to help with their product launch for Marie’s Dressing. A multi-platform campaign needed to launch their new products, which feature 6 different salad dressings. We had just one week to plan a two day shoot which would capture the material we would need to produce both still imagery and then motion aspects of the campaign. So we had to start sourcing the right props listed in their brief immediately – which is how a fellow producer and I ended up hiring a van and zipping down to Brighton to pick up some authentic old crates for the shoot!

Once we had all the props, we could start arranging them for the shoot and to best represent each product. As you can see in the Behind the Scenes video, this included matching which crate was to be our ‘Hero’ crate and which product (dressing) should go with what selection of vegetables. Luckily, the agency supplied us with a complete vegetable guide showing which had to go with each of the dressings. We shot 6 different Marie’s Dressings – Chunky Blue Cheese, Creamy Ranch, Coleslaw, Balsamic Vinaigrette, Basil pesto Vinaigrette and Raspberry Vinaigrette – each in various crate locations.

We captured the stills and the live action at Lock Studios, who were very accommodating and helpful. Our eagle eyed Cinematographer and Editor managed to capture the whole shoot and create two Behind the Scenes movies from the shadows which you can see on the project page.

On set, our food stylist, Emily, did an amazing job organising all the veggies in the crates. I never thought that organising leaves and carrots could be such an art, but watching her work you can see she definitely takes pride in what she does and it is a complicated job! She had a spray with her all times and sprayed oil on the vegetables frequently, so they didn’t evaporate under the hot studio light, keeping the vegetables looking fresh at all times.
The second shoot day was dedicated to the motion part of the campaign, which you can now see online. We glued tracking markers to all the crates, so we can remove the front and replace it with the illustrations that HW&H provided. We had a very strict timeframe in terms of how quickly we had to stack the crates in frame. It definitely took some organising and a few takes to get precisely what we envisaged. Stacking crates and placing bottles is not as easy as it looks when you want it to look natural and effortless – the bottle and the vegetables kept wobbling where we placed them!
HW&H is a nice little family-oriented business in Santa Monica, USA and we couldn’t have asked for a better client. They were open to our suggestions and we always got prompt clear feedback. They were unable to fly over and attend the shoot in London, so we allocated ‘Skype time’ (waiting until dawn on West Coast USA, 8 hours behind London time) on the shoot when we could share progress and explain how we envisioned moving forward. With our Retoucher on set, all the selects and rough compositions were sent over so that we could easily review work with the client and had the opportunity to adapt the art direction during the shoot.
We had a fun and very successful shoot, and we were able to have a great (healthy) feast of leftover fresh veggies at wrap! Back at the studio and on track to deliver the work on schedule, we moved onto the next task of comping together the branding artwork with the footage, bedding in the text with the crates to give a look that you wouldn’t question.
When I look back at this project, I feel like everything was at the right place: Amazing crew and team with a great client on board, there was no question that this project would be a great success. We have created 3 Hero prints and 3 different format banner ads each with text adaptations, and while we’re crunching on our carrots, we have a very happy client and agency indeed. What’s not to like about being a producer? Every day is different and that’s why I love it! Zs x

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We were delighted when we were approached by DDB Chicago (frequent visionaries of various McDonald’s campaigns) to create an image for the no.1 fast food chain’s latest product launch. The agency supplied us with a layout of the new burger so we could reference the exact food layering and capture the essence of the smiley, lip-smacking burgers “face” whilst shooting the bacon in our London photo studio.

Getting a rasher of bacon to mimic a tongue was a challenge – but with our expert in house photographers shooting every angle and consistency, we were able to imitate this perfectly. Making for very happy and impressed clients, which is always our main aim.
Our crafty Retoucher’s tidied the burger up in post production and created the background and overall colour grade, which was essential to the McDonald’s brand image. The tagline “lip-smackingly delicious” was added on for the final image. Check it out here.
In light of recent concerns over ingredients, this new product aims to reassure consumers of the quality of their food by using high-quality, 100% pure beef. The simplicity and understated element of this print says all we need to know about the product, capturing the essential nature of what is being advertised; a good quality, 100% beef burger.
The advert is sponsored by Florida International University and is being promoted throughout Miami, within consumer publications, direct mail and out of home advertising for one month due to its limited availability. Get it while you can Florida friends – and save us some will ya?

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To design and produce a 6 minute animation ‘The Hero in All of Us’, which shares 3 young heroes’ remarkable stories of bravery, our studios in London and New York joined forces with creative team C&C. During concept development and scripting stage, we had the humble privilege of interviewing the starring young heroes in New York. Hearing the inspiring stories first hand, helped us convey the authentic tales of bravery:

Arnette was enjoying thanksgiving with her dad, one minute he was fine and the next he had a stroke. She recognised the signs and ensured he was safe while dialling 911 – Arnette’s quick thinking helped save her dad’s life and now she is helping him recover with AHA’s support.

Sam’s Roof Garden Project makes healthy eating cool with AHA’s ‘Simple Seven’. Sam’s efforts took him to meet President Obama and are helping make a healthier America.

Tommy felt helpless when he saw a cardiac arrest in the street and no-one helped. It drove to him learning hands-only CPR, and in this film he shows you how to do it. He is currently lobbying to get a bill passed to get CPR taught schools across America.

The short combines hand drawn 2D animation with 3D environments and camera moves, giving it a dynamic motion with a sense of depth and action while the character animation retains the charm, warmth and human qualities associated with traditional illustration. Brendan Haley, Taylor James’ Executive Creative Director, says “one of the most interesting aspects of this animation was combining traditional hand drawn 2D animation with 3D camera moves and environments. A good example of this can be seen in Arnette’s ‘helping hand’s scene’, where 2D animated characters live in 3D space, interacting with 3D elements.”

The animated short commenced a moving evening of outstanding  presentations aboard the HSS Intrepid in New York, where significant sums were raised in support of AHA’s mission ‘to build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke’.
Stephen Minasvand, Associate Creative Director at CDM said:  “The AHA video is awesome. And I use that word to its truest definition. I was literally in awe at the Gala while watching it, even after seeing it for the umpteenth time… People were welling up in the audience.”

To be a real life super hero, it starts with something small!

For a detailed look behind the scenes of the character development and production process go to www.taylorjames.com/american-heart-association.

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Based on story time for adults, England’s favourite comedy stars read weird and wonderful tales for this humorous campaign. Taylor James supplied both photography and retouch from our in-house crew and we’re chuckling at the result.

Collaborating with advertising agency Mother, London, we were able to bring the vision to life with a packed studio shoot alongside our favourite crew members.

Our newest TJ Producer, Heather Woodburn, handled this project including full shoot production and managing the creative aspect alongside the agency. See what she has to say about it…

“It’s great to be able to produce a project completely in-house, from the photographer, retouch and creative lead to general shoot production. Working with our trusted team makes the shoot day a whole lot easier!

We use a lot of calculations in our work to ensure realistic angles and continuity, so we had our Technical Director on board armed with his laser measurer and it was all systems go! From the height of the tripod and lens to where each needed seated – which was a task in itself – everything is done to the millimetre.

Being able to offer our client the in-house facilities gave them peace of mind that someone else can handle the huge amount of work that goes into a shoot and also the reassurance that we know what’s needed to aid the post-production process. Being able to have our client in the studio for immediate feedback and it was fascinating watching our retouchers mask items, bed them in and see the final product after a busy few weeks. It was overall a lovely campaign that I loved spotting on television and on billboards.”

Crackanory hits UK TV screens on Wednesday 13 November at 10pm on Dave. See the full project HERE.

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See the full project and Behind the Scenes of how we made it.

We’re proud to say the campaign also got to the finalist at the MM&M Awards!

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