This is Photolink

Over the last few months we’ve been honoured to host some of the brightest and fastest names in British cycling in the Photolink Studios.

Thanks to our strategic positioning between the BBC Studios at Media City and the Manchester Velodrome, we’ve had world champion cyclists Sir Chris Hoy, Mark Cavendish, Bradley Wiggins, Victoria Pendleton and world champion BMXer Shanaze Reade passing through our doors on an almost regular basis.

So seeing as there are just under 100 days to go until their collective moment of truth at the London 2012 Olympics, we thought we’d take this opportunity to wish them all the very best of luck and point you towards the latest Sky campaign they're starring in.

Featuring imagery that was produced and shot in the Photolink Studios, the campaign will be almost impossible to miss on a series of 48-sheet billboards across the UK as build-up for the forthcoming Olympic Games starts to reach its peak.

Let us know if you see them elsewhere in the country as we've only managed to snap the ones around Manchester on our lunch break! You can guess how proud we all are, can't you?

News, Photographic, Production

Having your name in lights is a dream for most of us. So seeing our hard work – in particular our creative design, production and photographic work for BANK Fashion's latest advertising campaign – on a series of massive billboards nationwide is just as good. If not better.

Spearheading BANK Fashion’s spring/summer campaign, the billboards feature concepts and imagery creatively conceived, directed and produced by the Photolink team led by group creative director John Whalley and fashion production manager Claire Smith.

The photography was shot by Jamie Rowan and the final campaign collateral was designed by Photolink designer Charlotte Bradley.

The campaign centres on the brand’s own exclusive brands Blonde + Blonde, Ribbon, Nanny State, and Rivington, so we worked closely with BANK to develop a concept that would highlight the products’ perfect fit with forthcoming summer trends as well as express the cool and confident nature of the mother brand.

We were asked to help create and produce the entire campaign after an early spring campaign for BANK Fashion had the desired effect. It also tied in nicely with the recent heatwave when it launched. Let’s just hope the weather stays as bright for the latest campaign!

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Creative, Design, News, Photographic, Production

We’re very pleased to announce that Argos has won Product Innovation of the Year at the Oracle Retail Week Awards 2012. The retailer, a long-standing client of ours, beat off stiff competition from Halfords, B&Q and Debenhams to win the award thanks to its successful revival of struggling toy/childrens clothing brand Chad Valley.

After buying the brand following the collapse of Woolworths in 2009, Argos managed to “reinvigorate and extend the brand … increasing sales in a market that has declined by value.” said the judges.

Photolink-represented photographer Darren Taylor shot all the imagery across the latest Chad Valley ranges - imagery that has played a key role in reversing the negative perceptions of the brand among its core consumers (aka mums with kids).

We produced the shoots but it was Darren’s ability to capture the genuine enjoyment of kids at play and showcase a variety of products in their best possible light that has given Argos the perfect creative collateral to lift the Chad Valley brand. This being just one of the many reasons why he's our kids and childrenswear photographer of choice.

Check out Darren Taylor’s stunning portfolio here.

News, Photographic, Production

Last week the Photolink Studios were visited by photographic royalty as internationally-renowned photographer Nadav Kander - a man who counts portraits of Barack Obama, Brad Pitt and David Lynch as highlights in an epic portfolio - spent the day shooting exclusive images for a new exhibition commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery.

The exhibition is the culmination of a three year project called Road to 2012 which is creating a lasting record of the people who are dedicating their energies to the games. This was Kander’s second commission for the exhibition; his first being a portrait of young British sprinter Jodie Williams (right).

On the day he was joined by Zoe Tomlinson, an ex-Photolinker who is now part of his production team, while Photolink fashion producer Tarnia Armitage helped arrange the smooth running of the shoot from our side.

Kander's subject (who will have to remain a mystery until the exhibition starts in July) was shot in the Parish Rooms (Studio 5) and is another red hot tip for London 2012.

Take a look at how the project/exhibition is shaping up here and see Kander’s serene portrait of Jodie Williams in context. There’s also a very interesting interview with the man himself on YouTube which goes into great detail about the art of turning a picture into a portrait. Inspiring stuff.

News, Photographic, Production

Don't look out of the window, it’s probably grim. Take a look at these images from a recent swimwear shoot in Santorini for Littlewoods instead! They feature in the retailer's current campaign and will remind us all that the sky doesn’t always look like concrete. Feel better yet?

Photolink represented photographer David Woollacot and the team were on the Greek island for a couple of days for the shoot and said that despite the bright sunshine and smiles all round, it was still a little bit nippy for wearing bikinis. If you're still a bit jealous, you're not alone.

The shoot ran smoothly regardless of the weather and the models were consummate professionals from start to finish. Credit for the smooth running also goes to our Manchester based fashion production team who had arranged everything the team would need in advance and organised the logistics of transporting it to the volcanic island before the shoot began.

Aegean Airlines were a massive help with transportation, too, giving us a great deal on our excess luggage (no mean feat with a Star Alliance Member). So we said we’d tell everyone about them when we got home. They fly direct to Athens and Larnaca from Heathrow and have an extensive domestic network to pretty much all of the Greek Islands, so check their website out for flights here.

News, Photographic, Production

This recent spread of images shot by Dylan Don for Vogue L’uomo was produced by our very own fashion production manager Claire Smith. Working to an incredibly tight deadline, she worked directly with Don to get the right crew together on the day, found the perfect location and even organised a Aston Martin DB6 for the Manchester City star to play with.

Part of a three-cover January edition of the Italian version of Vogue’s international men’s magazine featuring Lady Gaga and Michael Fassbender, the cover shot and feature images inside were all shot in and around our very own complex of design and photographic studios in Manchester’s historic Ardwick Green.

Our favourite shots include the Premier League star walking the yellow line in the Photolink carpark (now holy ground for resident Blues) and looking pensive outside our local café The Uppercrust. We'd pull out a favourite quote but our Italian's a bit rusty.

Balotelli’s main sponsor Nike were there for the shoot (check out the footwear) and they shot this behind the scenes video which will give you a taste of how the imagery came together on the day.

News, Photographic, Production

Hot off the presses is the latest piece of creative artwork from Photolink; the 2012 Promotional Gifts catalogue for SPS.

Produced by Photolink's artwork, photographic and production departments, and lead by senior designer Brian Bent and Ben Carter, the product features four fantastic alternate covers and 184-pages of sleek creative.

We not only designed and created the entire catalogue but shot some of the still product photography within too. Have a look for yourself in the photo gallery above.

Artwork, Creative, Design, News, Production

Last week Regis Salons launched Emma Willis as the new face of their brand. As Regis’ creative partner we'd been sworn to secrecy over her identity until now, so we are delighted to finally reveal her and the part we played in the production of the campaign. We were tasked with both the art direction and photography of the Re:veal shoot and of course had the pleasure of working with the lovely and super professional Emma Willis.

We have a well established creative partnership with Regis Salons, having helped reenergise their brand identity with the successful ‘Regis Promise’ campaign, and currently provide the creative direction and creative collateral for all their marketing campaigns in print, in store and online.

The imagery produced from the Emma Willis shoot, for example, has already been translated into an array of posters, print adverts, point of sale and mirror clings to help publicise the campaign, and behind the scenes footage from the shoot has given Regis content for their blog and Facebook page keeping the campaign consistent across channels.

As part of the launch we also created a Regis Blog for Emma Willis and a unique social media campaign to engage audiences on line and drive footfall to the salons. Take a look at the ‘Locks Rock & Load’ campaign on Facebook here.

Creative, Design, News, Photographic, Production

Our latest piece of photographic and production handiwork comes in the diminutive – but no less impressive – stature of a 24-page look-book for JD Sports. Coming to a JD sports store or gym near you imminently, the look book is a digest of JD women's Autumn/Winter Collection and was built under the direction of art director Jen Adie and fashion production manager Claire Smith.

Shot over a four-day period on location around Manchester and our very own Studio 4, models Amber Elkins, Jasmine Clark and Georgina Howard are the real stars of the show but it wouldn’t have been possible without the expertise of photographer and long-time Photolink collaborator Jamie Rowan.

In-house photographer Greg Vickers was also instrumental in increasing the amount creative collateral to come out of the original shoot by creating a behind-the-scenes teaser video during the studio session. See the magic happening here.

Check out the look-book on the JD Sports microsite here, if you can’t wait to see it in JD Sports stores and gyms nationwide.

Design, News, Photographic, Production