by Philip Chudy
London 020 337 11854
San Francisco +1 415 203 3030
www.philipchudy.com
Back in the days of chemical photography, this sort of a look occurred when things went wrong (old chemicals. bad paper etc). But the look was intriguing and in rare cases ‘happy accidents’ created highly memorable images.
Nowadays a mindless digital auto-filter is expected to deliver the same retro effects and everyone has this facility on their smart phone. But the truth is that really successful treatments are as rare as they ever were. No tonal treatment suits every image or is predictable enough to be optimal in the hands of a emotionless thoughtless algorithm. In advertising, being tasked to deliver a specific high quality graphic/illustration effect ‘on demand’ remains as ‘challenging’ a creative task as it ever was.
A lot of experimentation is required to find the best
possible effect for the job. This is not least because - when
there is featured product (a car in this case) - retaining its
visual integrity is a major priority. Mood, atmosphere and sensual
textures come a big second after making the vehicle look desirable
even to the most conventional, creatively ambivalent buyer/driver.
But even so that 'big second' still has to be 'pretty big' to do
its job - - to cut through the noise and at minimum 'be noticed'
in our heavily image saturated media environment.
So, the brief was (as so often is the case) - 'be bold and cutting edge in creative terms for this Dodge Challenger image, but be careful not to challenge anyone's sensibility at the same time.