Sunday Spotlight 4/14/13
Sunday April 14th, 2013
Posts
The Transcendental Tale of Tazo Tea
Monday January 28th, 2013
by Maria Luci
Photographer Cade Martin is best known for his dreamlike and fanciful photo stories. Last Spring, Cade learned that Starbucks was interested in his unique photographic style and possibly considering him for an assignment. Intrigued, and as luck would have it already in Seattle for a project, Cade met with the coffee-loving creatives in person. Their meeting went so well that he extended his trip to speak with Starbucks Creative Director, Daniele Monti, about a specific project for their brand, Tazo Tea Company.
The Tazo brand has always had an ethereal quality to it—with phantasmagorical approaches to packaging, design, and especially copy (for example, Tazo’s site proclaims: “We Steep. And so begins the journey, crossing centuries and continents. Discovering the living history of our ancestors…”). CD Daniele says that, “When we met with Cade, it was love at first sight. Not only did he completely understand, but inspired us to further refine the concepts for each shot and created a level of excitement around the project that pushed it to a whole new level.” Cade “sealed the deal” by finding the perfect shoot locations to bring their concepts to life: Greystone Mansion (a Tudor-style estate where films like There Will Be Blood and The Prestige were filmed) and the Huntington Botanical Gardens.
The concept for the project was somewhat unusual for an advertising shoot; Starbucks wanted the photos to focus on moods and atmosphere, rather than the specific product itself. Daniele adds, “The whole concept revolved around providing a visual metaphor to display the benefits of the new line of well-being teas. We wanted to do this in a brand appropriate way for Tazo, and take this as an opportunity to enrich the brand positioning and its already unique visual vocabulary.” The creative team gave Cade keywords like “focus”, “drive” and “relief” that he was to illustrate in each of the images. It was a refreshing project for Cade, who enjoyed the creative freedom—and the chance to create a conceptual story rather than a literal interpretation of tea drinking. He also loved working with Starbucks, who he says were both extremely, “collaborative and supportive.”
The shoot took three days—two at the mansion and one at the gardens. Cade hired a good sized crew including an art department, producer, film lighting crew, and stylists. Julie Matos handled wardrobe styling, adding to the ethereal look of the project. Cade made sure to keep in mind that many of the photos would be used on Tazo packaging, and therefore needed to fade to white easily. This meant finding spots around the locations that allowed for sky, sunlight, mist, or other white elements to frame the shots.
The entire project went off without a hitch, making it one of the best times Cade’s ever had on an assignment. After the project wrapped, the final shots were sent to Starbucks. They’re now being used in large installation pieces in Tazo’s flagship store, as well as on the Tazo website. The photos will also be placed across Tazo packaging.
Daniele reflected on the project, concluding, “The experience was so positive, enriching and rewarding, that it made all of us better in the way we approach photography and art direction. We were very very fortunate to find Cade—a relationship that we will want to nurture and grow in the future for sure.”
View more of Cade’s work at cademartin.com
2012 PDN Photo Annual
Thursday May 17th, 2012
Well, it’s that time of year again… the PDN Photo Annual finally made its way to my desk; and after careful inspection of each photograph (all stunning by the way), I’m very pleased to announce that fifteen—yes, fifteen!—Wonderful Machine members’ images were selected. To top it off, our DC-based photographer Cade Martin was not only a winner but was also chosen to have one of his photographs featured as the contest’s cover shot (see below). Here are all the winning Wonderful Machine member photographs:
Cade Martin
Cade Martin / Washington DC
Contest Cover Image & Advertising
Saverio Truglia / Chicago
Advertising
Alistair Tutton / Kansas City
Advertising
Landon Nordeman / New York
Magazine/Editorial
Martin Westlake / Indonesia
Photo Books
Winnie Au / New York
Corporate Design/Photo Products
Tim Kemple / Salt Lake City
Corporate Design/Photo Products
Jonathan Chapman / Minneapolis
Corporate Design/Photo Products
Thomas Barwick / Seattle
Stock Photography
Dan Bannister / Canada
Stock Photography
Stewart Cohen / Dallas
Stock photography
Diana Mulvihill / San Francisco
Stock Photography
Jordan Hollender / New York
Websites
Ciril Jazbec / United Kingdom
Student Work
Toni Greaves / Portland OR
Photojournalism/Sports/Documentary
Congratulations to all the winners!
- Maria Luci
ONEderful
Monday May 14th, 2012
In my opinion, Cade Martin and Design Army should team up more often. Every time they get together, they create something uniquely wonderful; usually imagery that’s both whimsical and romantic, like their memorable campaigns for Neenah Paper and The Washington Ballet. Their most recent project was no different—a fanciful collaboration for The One Club.
Each year The One Club—an organization that “seeks to celebrate the legacy of creative advertising”—produces the prestigious international advertising competition, The One Show. For this year’s competition, The One Club came to Design Army to promote their call for entries to ad creatives across the globe.
For the campaign, Design Army knew they needed stand out imagery to catch the eye of fellow creatives, so they called up Cade to help bring their “ONEderful” theme to life. The “ONEderful” world consisted of adorable furry creatures, smiling flowers, fluffy clouds and one man with flaming red hair. Cade spent weeks furiously planning the production, making sure every little detail was in place before their Saturday and Sunday shoot dates. This included numerous visits to taxidermy shops to collect the menagerie needed. It finally seemed as if everything was in place but the universe had other plans; just days before the shoot an earthquake hit the east coast, followed right up by a hurricane.
The earthquake took out Cade’s location. Then, the night before the shoot, the hurricane took their talent. Their model—the one who they’d specifically had wardrobe and a wig fitted for—couldn’t make it to DC. He refused to travel by train during a hurricane. So, Cade and his team scrambled. They found a new location and ended up using Seth Callaway, a One Show producer, as their model—mostly because he was the only one who fit in the clothing. However, according to Cade, this turn of events actually worked out quite well,
Seth was amazing. He has a great face and so much energy. He’s so expressive. I don’t think the model could have taken it in the direction he took it.
But the universe wasn’t done yet, the hurricane ended up also taking out the studio’s power and Cade’s massive movie studio lights were in need of some serious juice. Fortunately, Cade had a generator and they were able to keep going, overcoming each problem as they arose. “Every single aspect of this shoot was adapt and overcome,” says Cade, “you gotta kind of roll with the punches.”
The final photographs—all composed in camera—were shared by The One Show through posters sent out to 35,000 creatives in over 60 countries. They were also used in banners on sites like Creativity, Campaign and Design Taxi, and in magazine ads. The images are truly ONEderful; which is maybe what the universe intended all along.
View more of Cade’s work on his website, cademartin.com.
- Maria Luci
