Wexley School For Girls
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Advertising, Editorial
Behold. The Wexley School For Girls. What!? An all girls school run by these guys? Yes. Wexley is a very exclusive all-girls school (Ad Agency) run by these two guys. Cal and Ian. And one of the highlights of my job is working with these fine people.
When I first met Cal and Ian, they didn’t know anything about advertising. They were a lounge singer duo in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood. I was hired by BusinessWeek to photograph them for a story about the resurgence of lounge singers in Metropolitan areas. That is how the sexy lounge singer portrait came about. At some point during the shoot, I said, ”This should be great advertising for your act.” And Ian said, “What the hell is advertising?” I laughed, but he wasn’t joking. He had no idea. I told him to look it up, which is exactly what he did. They read everything they could find about advertising, and before long they decided to open up their own ad agency.
The next time I photographed them, they were no longer singing Elton John, but they were making ads. And good ones at that.
In the last year, I have photographed Cal and Ian a few more times, as well as worked with them on a handful of ad campaigns. It’s not every day that an assignment or ad campaign comes around that allows you to work with such creative people who are willing to experiment and have fun. You might look at the quirky Wexley office, and think that it’s all fun and games. But they take what they do very seriously, and they are dang good at it too. Just look at the success the Seattle Sounders FC (a client of Wexley) have enjoyed.
I have a couple of earlier posts about ad campaigns that I have shot with Wexley. (Here) is the post about the Seattle Sounders FC billboard I shot earlier this year, and (here) is the post about the Human Wrecking Balls print campaign from late last year. In just a few short weeks, I will have some new Wexley related content and videos that I will be able to share. In the meantime, (here) is a hilarious video called “Winner Take Steve” written by Wexley, and directed by Jared Hess.
Tags: ad agency, ad agency headshots, Ad campaign, Cal McAllister, funny portraits, Headshots, Ian Cohen, Portraits, school for girls, Seattle ad agency, Seattle advertising, Sounders FC picture, Wexley, Wexley ad, Wexley advertising, Wexley office, Wexley pictures, Wexley School For Girls
Seattle Sounders FC Ad Campaign
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Advertising
There it is. My very first billboard. This is the inaugural season of the Seattle Sounders FC, the newest expansion team in MLS. Seattle is getting fired up about our soccer team, and it’s fun to be a part that excitement. The ad agency I worked with was Wexley School For Girls, which I always enjoy working with.
Now I know what some of you are thinking. Did he paint those people in the background? No. That would have taken way too long. We ended up using a cartoon modeling agency, and hired a few dozen cartoon models to stand in the background. Ok, that’s a joke. To give credit where credit is due, Rachael Ludwig is the artist who created the background art. I shot three scenes for this campaign. Fan with a scarf, fan with a flag, and crazy Sounders fans banging on a drum. The ads will be used for billboard, transit, print, and online.
The shoot was at Quest Field, home of the Seahawks and Sounders. Since we were there, I figured I would maximize my time, and take care of some additional business. I have been intending to try out for the Seahawks special teams, so they gave me a quick look. Here are some pictures from my open tackle and field goal trials. And a quick video from the photo shoot.
Lots of screaming in this video. Soccer fans are crazy!
Tags: Ad campaign, Advertising Photographer, Billboard, MLS, Quest Field, Seattle Soccer, Seattle Sounders, Seattle Sounders FC, Soccer, Soccer Fans, Sounders Billboard, Sounders FC Ad Campaign, Wexley, Wexley School For Girls
