Research

Food Advertising

Joakim Blockstorm

Joakim Blockstorm is a photographer from Stockholm, Sweden. His work represents his lifestyle with inherently Swedish themes. Along with with shooting his own work personal projects Blockstorm has worked on commission for a number of clients such as Park Lane restaurant, The Mariot and The Saturday Telegraph to name a few.

For this artist research I will be focusing on the work Blockstorm has done for restaurants and for cookbooks, basically his food photography.  

Blockdtorm has worked for lots of different clients in the food industry and has taken different approaches for different clients; but theres one thing that always stay’s the same and that’s simplicity. Blockstorm maintains a very sleek, minimalist style of photography. Especially that which is done in a studio setting aka somewhere that he has complete control of. In his food photography he refrains from drawing the viewers eye from the food or produce that he if photographing. He does this by only adding either blacks or whites to the image, using a black or white backdrop then either a white plate or some form of dark grey slab and sometimes no plate at all.

The way in which Blockstorm shoots his work it gives the food a very sharp bold look, bringing out the rich deep colours in the veg or the succulent juiciness of the meat.  The fact his backdrops are blank and colourless really amplifies the colours in the food making them stand out. I really admire the use of plain backgrounds especially in food photography as it gives you no where to hide, there’s no bight colours or objects in the background to draw the viewer eye away from the food. The photo, the food and the lighting have to be on point of the viewer will be able to tell straight away.

As his images only feature the food and possibly a plate, the composition of the images is limited. Blockstorm usually situates the subject in the center of the image, showing the whole plate of maybe taking a closer up approach, using the outer ring of the plate as a sort of boarder. 

His choices of colour pallet in his images have obviously been meticulously chosen. In the images with bold colours, bright greens or purples a pure white background has been chosen.  But also instead of juxtaposing colours he matches them, using the dark skin of grilled mackerel with a slate plate placed onto of a dark wooden table.  

I really like the use of minimalism in Joakim Blockstorms work. His beautifully pristine images show a great understanding of colour and how food should be displayed not only in an advertising sense but also in a normal sense. His images intrigue instead of overwhelm making you focus on the delectable food instead of distracting you with bright tablecloths or random objects.

I will be using Blockstorm’s work as a reference when I start shooting my food advertisement.   

 

Keiko Oikawa

Keiko Oikawa is a Japanese food photographer and food stylist based in the UK. She has worked for advertising, editorial and design clients such as Marks and Spencer’s, The Guardian and celebrity baker Mary Berry.  

I’m using Keiko’s work for inspiration as all of her work is done on location or at least outside of a studio. She uses interesting backdrops and takes a rather non-minimalistic approach to her work. Using lots of bright colours in the food but shooting them on a muted grey, white of soft blue background. These backgrounds aren’t always restricted to a tablecloth either with the use of distressed wood or a simple worktop (usually stone).

The work Keiko produces are commonly still lives with the occasional chefs hand sneaking in or a rare portrait. Although the pieces are mainly still lives they don’t have a stiff of staged look, the images seem lively and fresh as if they were just made that second or still under construction. This style gives Keiko’s work a very real essence as if that could be your kitchen making the viewer believe that could be then making the work relatable.   

 

One of the most common themes in Keiko’s work is the soft muted light that she uses.  When its possible She will use natural light to illuminate her work but if natural light isn’t an option or isn’t sufficient She will use soft a soft flash such as a light box or ring flash.  

Although Keiko’s work dosen’t change massively it will change in parts for certain companies or mediums in which they will be shown, for example maybe the work will become slightly more minimal for a more manly or serious client, or they work may get lighter and softer for a more female based client. 

I find Keikos work really interesting. Her use of the surfaces, textures and colours in the world around her are very inspirational. I love her use of soft lighting it really add’s an appealing essence to the food and the use of light/soft colours adds a British feel to the work.   

I like the soft and light colour tones this image uses. It is quite a large juxtaposition of Joakim Blockstorms work. The colour pallets totally conflict as Joakims darktones and sever lines are totally different to Keika Oikawa much soft images.  The arrangement of the images are also quite different, Oikawas work is a lot more cluttered compared to the super minimal work of Blockstorm. The lighter more friendly work by Oikiawa is focused at a more everyday audience where as Blockstorms work is a lot more obsequies and decadent, aiming at a fine dining audience instead of a high street one.     

Sainsbury's 'Tempting Meals' adverts 

This series of adverts produced by Sainsbury's is a great example of simple to the point advertising. Each advert consists of relatively close up shots of the product that is being promoted e.g. Spinach, Bacon, Bread. The adverts also feature the name of the product, the price, the Sainsbury's logo and a small graphic relating to the product layered over the top of the shot. 

The images I am looking at for inspiration are all taken from a series of 30 second long adverts called 'Tempting Meals' produced by Sainsbury's. The adverts showed you how to prepare a healthy/tasty meal and also the ingredients needed for them. Its when the the ingredients are being show that these scenes are being used, the text stays still while the video clip plays behind it, a nice touch is that the small graphics e.g. spinach leaves move as well. 

All of the shots have taken a sort of light hazy approach, as if its very sunny in the kitchen. Giving the image of a sunny sunday morning. This has been intentionally done to give the food a happy and friendly image. 

Close ups have been used in the promotional cut scenes as filling the screen with the product dosen't leave the audience anything to get distracted by. It makes them souely focus on the product in front of them.    

 
I really like the style of the adverts, I have seen music videos with a similar concept (Schoolboy Q - There he go). The moving graphics over the moving image work so well, and the still wording keeps things grounded. 

I will be using the stills from the adverts as an inspiration for my watercress shoot, I love the lay out and the simplicity is exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for. 

This adverts is quite similar to the Keiko Oikawa work I looked at they both share a similar style interns of base images. They both have a hazy softness, giving the audience a feeling of sunny day in the kitchen. Both adverts juxtapose the dark, minimal work of Joakim Blockstorm. 

Fashion Advertising

Modern high fashion street brands

(Pyrex Vision & Hood By Air)

There are quite a few high fashion street brands around at the moment for example the Kanye west endorsed brand Pyrex Vision and the equally modern Hood By Air.  

These ubermodern street fashion brands create a large amount of buzz for theme selves through celebrity endorsement e.g. A$AP Rocky and Wiz Khalifa supporting Hood By Air and Kanye West representing his own brand Pyrex.   

They also create buzz through the Internet, using social media sites to spread images and information about there clothing. 

Although both brands are quite different in style they both feature a similar colour pallet. With both clothing lines using mainly black and white, with the odd splash of colour. This lack of colour actually works in the photographer’s favor making the use of black and white more expectable as its not removing any colour from the clothing. As both brands are focused at street culture a lot of the press shots are done in a city setting. The greys, blacks and whites of the cityscape really complement the clothing especially when the image is desaturated as everything is a similar tone. 

Its also interesting how colour has been used to contrast the model, this has been done in different ways using white to contrast the black in the models outfits or bright colours in the background to contrast the two tone outfits. 

I like the way the photographers for these brands stick to a basic colour pallet, commonly sticking to whites, blacks and greys. It makes the work stand out and easy to recognize.

 I want to take as similar approach with my fashion shoot. I will be sticking to a limited colour pallet, maybe three colours. I will also be shooting in an urban setting using an interesting textured background that will complement the lighting I planning to use. I like the use of concrete in the HBA image (to the right) so I may take a similar approach for my background.

 

Urban Industry’s Look Book 2011

Urban Industry’s is an online street fashion retailer, every season they bring out a new look book promoting the newest clothing they have in.

For this winter 2011 instalment they decided to shoot in the studio instead of the street but instead of going for a clear crisp white back drop they flipped it, going for a dark for wintery feel.

I really like the use of a much darker studio, the use of the dark lighting and backdrop really make the clothes stand out and enhance the bright colours. Making the reds pop and the blues even more electric. 

It’s an interesting approach to take especially for a clothing brand as if it wasn’t executed right the dark background and lighting could have drowned the clothing making it seem dull and boring. But luckily it did the total opposite.

You can also see they have really put thought into the shoot as there model is quite dark skinned a background that was too dark may have over powered him so they chose to go for a more gray/charcoal tone to bring out his skin tone. This grey colour is a perfect tone for the clothing as a totally back background although it would bring the colours out it would loose some of the darker tones in the clothing. The flashes used are also very subtle, while using a bark backdrop this is important as a flash that is too intense will be very notable and for this type of shoot would be all wrong. Ruining the subtlety.  

This is also quite an ingenious idea if you are planning on trying to sell one specific product, you aren’t just going to dress the model in only that but you don’t want the other products to draw the viewers eyes away from it. So how do you get the viewer to focus on it? In this case it’s the yellow jacket, they decided to dress the model in muted darker tones and add the yellow jacket this is already drawing the viewers eye but with the added dark back drop the vibrant yellow is the main focus of the image, it really draws the viewers eye. It gives the impression that you will stand out if you wear it, everyone will be looking at you you’ll stand out from the dull tones of everyone around.

I really like the approach Urban Industry’s took for there look book. The approach they took is simple but works so well, just by changing the backdrop and lighting in the studio is makes the work stand out from the crowd and more importantly it make the clothing stand out from the crowd.

I am planning on taking a similar approach for my fashion advertisement, I will be incorporating the use of a dark backdrop but I think the shoot will be outdoors.

Both adverts share similar points but also have many differences. Both adverts use a dark background which are reminiscent of cities or streets. Both are promoting street fashion even though Pyrex is promoting a higher fashion brand they are still working in the same area. 
But they feature differences too, for example the use of studio in the 'Urban Industry' totally juxtaposes the location photography in the Pyrex/Hood By Air adverts. 
The use of the dark backdrops have been used for different reasons too. In the Urban Industry's adverts the dark backdrop is used to contrast the bright clothing worn by the model. In the Pyrex/Hood By Air adverts the desaturated images are used to emphasise  the black and white colours that the clothing is made up of.  

Smoking Awareness

Network Advertising anti-smoking campaign   

In this advert produced by the Indian design company Network Advertising in 2010, there is a strong and obvious anti-smoking message. Each advert shows a hand in the same position as if they are smoking a cigarette but instead of a cigarette its a member of their family. Each family member looks disappointed/angry, with the strap line  'Smoking. Pleasure for you. Poison for your family'. The strap line dosen't only relate to passive smoking but also the divide smoking can for between people.  The adverts main focus is how callous smoking can not only poison you but poison other who haven't chosen to smoke. 

Digital manipulation has been used to super impose the family member where cigarette should be. The manipulation has been purposefully done in a rough style to make the work eye catching, to make you notice the person, thee hasn't been any special work done to the family member to make them look like a cigarette apart from the resizing. I think it may have looked better if the family's clothing had been that of a cigarette, orange/beige trousers and a white top half of the body.  

The campaign consists of three adverts one showing a mother/wife, one showing a father/husband and one showing a child/sibling. Showing how each member of the family will be effected. 

These adverts are produced in a poster form, they could be used as large posters or could work in a magazine format. 

I think this advert is interesting, I like the simplicity of it all. I think it gives more impact as its so simple and straight to the point. I like the use of the hand to show smoking, it makes it universal and applicable to anyone. 

I will be using influences from these adverts in my own smoking awareness advert.  

 Assortment of smoking awareness adverts  

While looking at smoking awareness adverts I noticed quite a lot of very successful and thought provoking adverts that use the whole cigarette as the basis of the advert, using it to show the destructiveness of smoking by showing tanks and other artillery inside or showing a hospital bed that looks like a cigarette by having orange and white bedding (Image to the right). 

Each advert gives quite a similar message although they are all made by different designers. Each advert focuses on the smoker, they highlight the danger of smoking and how it ultimately kill the smoker them selfs these adverts don't focus on others they are specific to the smoker them selves. One of the adverts shows a dead body covered by a bed sheet as if they are in a moratory. To show the advert is focused at smokers there is a large orange filter attached to the sheet to resemble a cigarette. This is quite a similar concept to the afore mentioned advert(see advert above) as 
it conatates the smoker will be hospitalised or will die. 
The colours of the cigarette and its shape have been used 
to show this. 

The other two adverts I have looked at Focus around an actual cigarette. They use a cigarette as the subject of these advert and manipulate it to get there desired effect. One of the adverts has used the as of the cigarette, the turned the full cigarette apart from the filter into one large piece of ash. Once they had done this they changed the ash into an abundance of skulls, making the ash look like a mass grave. giving an idea of the amount of deaths caused by smoking as if its a huge genocide. 
The other advert using a cigarette as the focus I have already spoken briefly about. They have taken a cross section image of the cigarette, showing it as hollow inside. Inside the cigarette instead of tobacco it is replaced with tanks and troops. This is supposed to show the mass destruction of cigarettes and how it can be like a war inside your body with the cigarette attacking your organs. 

I will be using different parts of each of these adverts for inspiration in my smoking awareness advert. 

Although the adverts are both going for the same idea they use very different ideas and techniques. The Network advertising ads focus on the harm can cause to other whereas the collection of ads focus on the general destructiveness of smoking and what it can do to you. The collection focuses on the fact it can cause death where as the Network ads arnt as dirct in there approach. 
The Network ads are more slogan/work dominant than the collection of ads which focus on there images.