Waldorf Dressing

We were recently commissioned to Art Direct / Style and Produce a 6 day photoshoot at the new Waldorf Astoria on the Bund, Shanghai. The Waldorf is probably most famous for its  salad which was first created at the New York Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in 1896 not by a chef but by the maître d'hôtel, (dining room manager).

The hotel had only just opened, which can sometimes be a challenge for shoots based on past experiences, it can be compared to having 1,000 people who have just moved into a new home and you ask one of them where do you keep the teaspoons... thankfully this wasn't the case. The shoot went like clockwork!

Room with a view... sometimes

Bride with a view

Behind the scenes is never glamorous

 Great place to play with Instagram.

 Quentin also had the opportunity to shoot some images, here's a selection below.
See the full series here.

Run Rabbit, Run!

Chinese New Year of the Rabbit is upon us and this year we decided to put together a set of Hong Bao's. These are traditionally red packets containing money given out during family or social gatherings during Chinese New Year or at weddings.

There are no clear sources which trace the origin of the red envelope tradition although it is said during the Qing Dynasty the elderly would thread coins with a red string. The money was called yāsuì qián and was believed to have protected the elderly from sickness and death. The yāsuì qián was replaced by red envelopes when printing presses became more common.

So, bucking tradition we developed a series of silver 'red' packets which featured 3 different tangram rabbits. Tangram (seven boards of skill) originated in China and is a dissection puzzle game using seven shapes. The objective of the game was to form an outline of an object. There are approximately 5,900 different shapes that can be achieved, we managed 3!

A Starfish is Born

At the end of last year we were approached by a charity organisation based in Ubud, Bali. They ran a small language centre offering free English classes to Balinese children as well as paid private conversation classes in English, French and Japanese for adult members of the local Balinese community.
Devoted teachers from America, Canada and Australia joined together in support of Starfish and have been volunteering their years of education and experience to this common goal.
Their existing identity only appealed to the younger audience and with the growing number of adults, they came to us for advice and help.
Working for charities can be an exhaustive and sometimes labour intensive task, but on this occasion they were a joy to work with. Out of the several identities presented, the chosen version captured a whimsical, lighthearted feel which was inherent in their previous identity.
For more details visit their facebook fanpage.