Fespa Print Expo

This year our idea dramatises the explosion of innovation and creativity in the global print industry, with the line ‘An explosion of possibilities’ set in the context of a literal explosion of colour.

Creating the assets for the creative, and making it as dramatic and dynamic as possible, was a painstaking but rewarding process, achieved using the very fine, very colourful powder of screen printing pigment itself. The powder was balanced on a small metal disc suspended a metre and a half off the floor, then struck with a ruler. The camera was fixed directly above, with a very narrow depth of field, to blur the background while capturing the powder explosion itself in sharp focus.

The stills photography was done in blackness, with the flash and shutter controlled by an audio trigger – the sound of the ruler hitting the disc – at an unusually fast 6,000th of a second. Many many shots were combined and comped together to form the final images and give them their real sense of motion, energy, and controlled abandon.

The video elements required a separate shoot, not in blackness but flooded with light and shot on a very high resolution, high speed camera, operating at 200 frames per second, to create a complementary effect for moving assets. The imagery was used to create an integrated campaign, incorporating everything from the main website to direct mail invites to event signage and advertising, to a ‘behind the scenes’ video telling the story of the photo shoot.

We have been recommissioned for the 2020 event. Watch this space.