Client: Google
Director: Dan French
Director of Photography: Olan Collardy
Photography: Ossi Piispanen
Creative Direction: Matthew Reynolds & Mark Farinha
We created a campaign to encourage Pixel users to ‘Make match days easier’ using their Google device.
We leveraged Google’s partnership with the FA and the England National Football Teams to gain exclusive access to Wembley Stadium, allowing us to shoot part of our campaign there as well as enabling two ‘Match day takeovers’.
The series of adverts we shot showcased groups of friends and family using their Pixel phones in a variety of match day situations: storing train tickets in Google Wallet, paying for half-time pies and merchandise using Google Pay, and so on.
We created two ’hero’ 30-second cuts for YouTube (accompanied by 20 and 6-second cut down edits) as well as a multitude of social assets for TikTok, Meta, Spotify and more.
Alongside this we created collateral for the Match day takeovers – including a DOOH placement for the 25 metre-wide screen on the stadium exterior, a print advert for programmes and animated sequences for the pitch-side advertising hoardings. These ran over the course of two England matches: the men’s team Euros-qualifier win over Malta and the Lionesses’ spectacular 3-2 comeback against the Netherlands.
Pictures © Google
Client: Volvo
Film Director / Editor: Phil Lane
Videography: Fandango Film
Photography: Johan Wedenström
Art Direction: Matthew Reynolds
We filmed and photographed the Volvo XC90 in Gothenburg, Sweden.
The brief was to produce three films to be used on Volvo’s website and social channels highlighting different aspects of the car’s advanced technological features. Additionally, the client requested that photographic shoots happened around the film-making in order to provide stills to be used online.
The films feature Volvo employees who spend their free time enjoying activities related to their roles and responsibilities in the workplace.
First we met Maria Björler, a Volvo product manager who competes in Iron Man events at weekends. She explained to us how the design of her wetsuit provides her with a feeling of control during her early-morning training sessions. Watch her film here.
Next was Robert Eriksson, a keen walker and explorer, whose role over the past 30 years has been to develop green technology for Volvo. The ‘mild hybrid movement’ he pioneered is helping make engines more efficient through electrification. Watch his film here.
Finally, we met Volvo’s director of driver assistance Eva Lahti. Alongside Robert Thomson (a keen cyclist and professor of vehicle safety at Gothenburg’s Chalmers University) she introduced us to the so-called ‘paradox of safety’ – the idea that even as roads become statistically safer we feel increasingly vulnerable in our cars. The greater number of cars on the road, trickier interactions with larger vehicles (in tighter spaces) and anxiety caused by new and unfamiliar technology can all contribute to this feeling – causing a noticeable difference between perceived safety and real safety. Watch their film here.
Client: Google
Photography: Mark Chilvers
Art Direction: Matthew Reynolds
To encourage passengers to pay using GPay on London’s Underground network I created assets for five ‘station takeovers’ for Google in association with Transport for London.
Working closely with both sets of clients, including TfL’s head of design, I produced hundreds of unique placements to be fitted in Paddington, Victoria, London Bridge, Stratford and Liverpool Street stations, as well as redesigning the ticket gate ‘readers’.
The campaign’s visual identity referenced the iconic Tube map, while the text referenced local landmarks – ensuring a very ‘London’ tone appealing to both commuters and tourists alike.
Alongside the station takeovers we strategised a social campaign as well as a TfL website takeover featuring animated versions of the signage.
Pictures © Google
Ongoing photographic project.
I took some pictures of the shopfronts of Walthamstow high street. The mix of independent stores and more familiar names set amongst the varied architecture of E17 created the perfect backdrop for framing shoppers passing by.
Client: Mazda
Photography: Tim Cole
Videographer: Zac Assemakis
Film Editor: Oliver McIntyre
Art Direction: Matthew Reynolds and Dan Froude
We filmed and photographed the all-new Mazda MX-5 RF in London. Over three nights I assisted a senior art director and drove the prototype vehicle (accompanied by police outriders) around the capital. The result was a photoset for Mazda’s customer magazine as well as the short film ‘Drive London: Soundtrack To The Night’ for use on their social media channels. The idea was to demonstrate how quickly the ‘retractable fastback’ roof mechanism could shut out the sounds (and wet weather) of the city.
Pictures © Mazda
Photographic project.
We travelled to Benidorm in Spain for an article in issue 16 of Umbrella, the lifestyle magazine I co-founded. Our invitation came from visitbenidorm.es, a government-funded initiative encouraging tourists to look again at the coastal resort.
We met and interviewed municipal architect Luis Camarasa, who has overseen the town’s development for 35 years. Sitting in the futuristic town hall (which he designed) he explained to us that the man responsible for modern Benidorm, and by extension all modern Mediterranean resorts, was Pedro Zaragoza Orts. Following a stint working in the local mine (and later in the town bank) Orts was appointed mayor in 1950. One of his first initiatives was to permit the wearing of bikinis on the beach – a hugely controversial move at the time and one which nearly saw him excommunicated by local bishops. His next step was to complete a 600 mile round trip (by scooter) to visit General Franco. The dictator not only agreed to allow the bikini-wearing to continue, but, crucially, gave Orts his blessing to transform Benidorm from a sleepy fishing village of 3000 people into a high-rise holiday destination. “If you build low, you occupy all the space and have a long walk to the beach” he said. “If you build high you face the sea, and leave room for gardens, pools and tennis courts”.
Today Benidorm has more than 300 skyscrapers including the Hotel Bali (the tallest hotel in Europe) and the Torre Lugano (which at 158m is the highest residential block on the continent). The town has a population of around 70,000, but has enough hotel beds to accommodate over 200,000 visitors during peak season. The only other European destinations with more capacity are London and Paris. The town planning department require that the soaring towers occupy the space required for their ‘single-storey footprint’ – meaning that if a hotel has 100 rooms stacked on top of each other then it must be built in a space sufficiently large to accommodate all of those rooms at ground level. The result is pleasantly-spaced buildings surrounded by green space, as opposed to the familiar ‘clusters’ of high-rise towers in Manhattan or Hong Kong. Sociologist Mario Gaviria is currently leading the push to secure UNESCO World Heritage status, claiming that the resort is “a symbol of harmonious coexistence that happily brings together people of all nationalities and languages”.
Over the last 50 years more than 250 million visitors have enjoyed Benidorm, winning it admirers around the world, including – strangely enough – North Korea. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea recently dispatched a team of 20 officials for a tour of the Costa Blanca, taking in the ‘most sustainable and best-designed city of the Mediterranean’ as a possible blueprint for the development of its own resort in the town of Wonsan on North Korea’s east coast.
Pictures © Matthew Reynolds