Bunker Leads Image Strategy for New International Accor Hotels Spa and Wellness Offer.

Investing in the health and well-being of Team Bunker has always been a priority – whether at work or at play.

So, you can imagine how excited we were when the global hospitality giant, The Accor Group, approached us to lead image strategy for their exciting new spa and wellness offer.

With over 40 hotel brands, 5,300 hotels, 10,000+ restaurants and bars across 110 countries, sat at the heart of the project was the need to set an image strategy that was three-fold.

Not only aligned to The Accor Group’s holistic values and brand, it also needed to crucially excite and stand out specifically across 30 sites - as well as harmonise with any customer or location-based considerations, across five countries.

Conveying the right messages to Accor’s target audiences, via imagery, encouraging them to develop strong emotions when they encountered them and understand their point of difference - was our goal.

By collaborating with Accor’s global team early on, at the strategic planning stage, we knew we had a fantastic chance to maximise delivery. Our collective aim – to produce a core suite of stand-out spa and wellness image assets, for optimal and bespoke use by the brand, with consistent cut-through and resonance across their digital channels.

Collaborating and inputting into the strategic planning and creative brief setting stage really is our happy place. At Bunker we are programmed from day one to ensure scope, aim and alignment of the role everyone must play in delivery is understood. Whether it’s identifying key milestones or levers to unlock success (creatively, budget, or time-wise), through to understanding and mitigating any potential barriers (or risks). There is no doubt this robust approach enabled the strongest foundations, from which to collaborate with the brilliant Team at Accor.

This also meant when it came to focusing on creative exploration, development, and production - not only could our Bunker team do it at pace (meeting some very cute timelines), but with the crucial confidence that at every stage, they remained on brief and on budget.

Ian Baker, our Head of Creative Post-Production continues, “Our rigorous approach also meant we established early on that we could mitigate the need for a budget and time-hungry bespoke photoshoot. In its place, instead harnessing our team’s award-winning post-production expertise. With optimal delivery always our goal, confirmation from the lovely Accor team that we did exactly that, was definitely a boost to Team Bunker’s mind, body, and soul!”.

The Bunker Wins Lürzer's Archive Top Accolade - ‘Best 200 Digital Artist Worldwide for 2023’.

What a lovely way to close 2022.

We are proud to announce that we’ve been selected again by the prestigious Lürzer’s Archive – the go-to global creative resource for advertising professionals – as one of their 200 Best Digital Artists Worldwide for 2023.

The judging panel said they were particularly impressed by our integrated approach to delivering the creative for London based, Mellor and Smith’s, CTEK advertising campaign.

A combination of super CGI expertise along with digital oil paintings meticulously painted by hand, for three unique environments – this was the 21st Century equivalent to three Old Masters paintings!

Huge well done to all involved, a true team effort – with a special shout-out to our client and Creative Director Jim, from Mellor & Smith. From the outset, Jim implicitly trusted our innovative approach to help bring his fantastic European campaign creative to life. Thank you Jim.

The Lürzer’s Archive coveted special edition book, dedicated to the 200 Best Digital Artists - will be available in print, January 2023.

Want to find out more about this top-rated advertising campaign? Click here

Insights

'Moving with the Times'

London based advertising agency Mellor & Smith came up with a creative concept for their above-the-line campaign for CTEK, a world leading manufacturer of electric car charging units.

Their vision was to show how re-fuelling today compares with more traditional methods from the past.

Three of CTEK’s key locations for electric car plug-in stations were identified to communicate new-world charging. These locations – retail, leisure, and workplace – formed the basis for Bunker to begin building the charging points and each of the three CGI environments.

Mellor & Smith had found inspiration from an existing 18th century oil painting depicting a horse tethered outside an inn, drinking from a trough.

This style would represent the old-world well enough but simply using the original would prove to be far too restrictive. To work successfully alongside the new world, the scene would need to be adapted and recreated to fit with the three CGI environments.

We enlisted our expert illustrators to create bespoke illustrations showing bustling marketplaces, busy taverns and smoky factory scenes.

It was a challenge to recreate the oil paintings in this way, but it meant we had complete control over all aspects of the heights and angles and were able to make the two halves marry up perfectly.

Our approach to build the three scenes entirely in CGI and digitally hand paint each and every part of the oil paintings not only sidestepped all shoot restrictions in place at the time, but ultimately led to a smoother workflow and an awesome series of bespoke imagery.

The finished campaign ran across outdoor, digital and social media channels.

storyboard

[ stawr-ee-bawrd, stohr-ee-bohrd ]

noun
A panel or panels on which a sequence of sketches depict the significant changes of action and scene in a planned film, as for a movie, television show, or advertisement.*

At Bunker we see a storyboard as a visual representation of how a story will be told scene by scene. It's made up of a timeline showing a sequential series of images with notes and commentary and communicates a creative vision.

Storyboards do add cost to a project and take time to build but they are essential to keep a project on track and on budget.

Our illustrators can create an infinite number of different visual styles to help you to sell an idea into a client or portray the overall creative vision of a project so get in touch if you want to know more.

*Definition sourced from dictionary.com

THE AGENCY PLAYBOOK

The debate about using a post-production agency for awesome retouching and CGI versus an in-house agency is one that has been raging for years.

In that time there has surely been every derivative imaginable – we have in-house, out-house, on-site, off-site, traditional, hybrid, full-service, boutique, offshore; we're sure that even virtual-traditional-hybrid-offshore has existed somewhere!

So, with all that ambiguousness it should come as no surprise that the long list of pros and cons for each model will be debated for many years to come, but for now, let’s leave that for another time.

Instead, we’d like to tell you the story of how we support our agency clients and the crucial role we play as part of a unified team, delivering project after project in absolute harmony.

Sounds blissful, so what do we do specifically? Well, to put it simply, we just kick.

Let’s kick this off with a slightly tongue in cheek sports analogy.

Aside from all the people who work hard behind the scenes, an American Football team consists of attack and defence and as a comparison, let’s say in this case an agency has creatives and artworkers.

These guys get the most game time and they are the coach’s regular players – the first picks, the go-to-guys – but ask any fan and they would agree that for those big game-defining moments, putting the ball between the posts from 50 yards requires a different type of player.

Enter ‘The Kicker.’

The Kicker has a different build, the Kicker has different talents, the Kicker has a different way of doing things but don’t forget, despite these differences the Kicker always knows the team’s playbook.

In short, The Kicker is the specialist. The Kicker is The Bunker.

Unlike the Dallas Cowboys or Miami Dolphins, most agencies or clients cannot afford to have a Kicker just sat on the bench waiting for that big moment to perform, it simply makes no commercial sense.

So, when that big moment arrives, the coach thinks, "Well we don’t have a kicker, let’s give the creative a go" or "What about the artworker? Maybe they could give it a shot".

And guess what... despite all the hard work and effort of the team’s regulars, the ball hangs agonisingly in the air before ricocheting off the outside of the post... the crowd gasp and that potentially award-winning piece of work sent wide of the target and the moment has gone, forever.

It’s a clever coach that knows the impact the Kicker will have on this moment. Knowing what’s at stake and knowing that only perfection will win the game, he waves The Bunker onto the field.

So Coach, if your team needs a Kicker, now you know where to find one.

BMW M8 concept with Xisco Fuster and Car Magazine

The latest offering from The Bunker was a sneak peek of the brand new BMW M8 concept, unveiled to the world's M8 enthusiasts and aficionados for the first time by Car Magazine and was expertly shot by Xisco Fuster.

Head of Production at The Bunker, Diego, was faced with the challenge of bringing the new BMW M8 Grand Coupé into a completely new environment. The new softly lit background subtly frames the car and the vertical shafts of light gently mimic the iconic BMW grille. As with any automotive post production, making the most the lines and features of the car is very important. Diego says "it’s this attention to detail that helps describe the shape and design lines of the vehicle, so naturally this is where we spend the most time”.

The dynamic face of the BMW 8 series is such a key aspect of the car, so the next challenge was highlighting that familiar grille so it widens towards the road and leads on through the glamorous headlights using graceful, pencil-thin lines.

Car Magazine describe the M8 as a luxurious, purposeful, elegant car with beautiful grey-green paint and oddly, the yellow headlights give an old-school French touch! The car’s designer adds "Every little detail on this car is like a sculpture, a 3D object, a understated piece of jewellery!".

The Bunker Team.
https://www.the-bunker.com/

8 of the Biggest and Best Infinity Coves in London for Automotive Shoots

An infinity cove is the perfect way to create a feeling of endless space and because it produces such great results the technique has been used by photographers for many years. Reducing reflected light and control the environment with a lot more precision is what any automotive photographer is after but what do you do when the size of your subject has four wheels and is a bit on the large side?

Finding a studio to hire with an infinity cove large enough to accommodate large vehicles can be tricky, but look no further because we have put together a list of eight photography studios around London for you to explore.

CENTRAL LONDON

Holborn Studio 7 is centrally located, the studio offers a great 30ft x 28ft cove with ceiling and easy drive-in access, making it ideal for car shoots.

EAST LONDON

Cherry Duck is well located in Wapping. The main studio for shooting cars is Studio 5 with an impressive 22ft x 22ft shooting area.

The Blue Studios, a studio found in the heart of London’s creative hub offers a 20ft x 32 ft infinity cove.

NORTH & NORTH WEST LONDON

Big Sky London uses a transformed bus depot and the studio features a massive 33ft x 33ft infinity cove.

Park Royal Studios has a huge site with 4 drive in studios and an established team of assistants on-site to ensure that the shoot runs smoothly.

Island Studios provides 5 drive-in access studios with the largest stage being 150ft x 110ft and another also has a pre-lit green screen.

SOUTH WEST LONDON

Malcolm Ryan Studios offers a huge 87ft x 50ft U shaped infinity cove, floating ceiling and overhead shooting platform.

The Worx has 9 studios, one of which features a huge 57ft x 26ft studio easily capable of bringing in a car.

A Winning Image for the One Eyeland Awards!

Now the weekend is nearly upon us we thought we’d share some great news! We recently collaborated with Barry Makariou to create six images for a feature in Men’s Health magazine. The series won Bronze in the One Eyeland Photography Award for Best Advertising Still Life/Product.

Since its release, we’ve received some wonderful feedback through social media and we hope this is just one of many awards Barry receives for his amazing photography!

Huge thanks to everyone involved and you can learn more about how we helped Barry Makariou achieve his vision by viewing the full project.

Portimao Powerhouse

Portimao Circuit was the backdrop for Patrick Gosling’s shoot. Famous as an Formula 1 testing track and A1 Grand Prix circuit it was the perfect environment for this trio to show us what they could really do! Awesome!

Natural Beauty with Jaguar XE and XF

Jaguar’s range of executive saloons and SUVs is now widely revered for being one of the most capable and trusted in their class, beating their closest rivals in many a popularity contest.

The Bunker worked alongside the Jag team to create this beautifully refined series of images and there were many challenges throughout the process from a retouching perspective, the most important thing though was to retain a natural beauty to the imagery and I think we did a great job… I mean just look at them, gorgeous!

There were many more in this series so keep you eyes peeled on our gallery page to see the rest!

Deep impact with Men's Health magazine

Showcasing the latest and greatest watches from around the globe, Men’s Health seventh edition of Synchronised has curated their collectors covers to celebrate the brands that have struck hardest and broken the mould for 2016.
We had the pleasure of teaming up with photographer Barry Makariou who is always creating exciting fresh concepts, to produce a series of stunning images designed, like the featuring watches, to be highly impactful.
Check out our making of video to see how these images were created.

Giving you an Insight into our Imagery

We have a brand new way of showing you the hard work and love that goes into our imagery.
Using this slider will give you an instant insight into how our retouching enhances the beauty of the imagery we work with. Make sure you explore the projects on our website to see plenty more of these sliders.