What do an online magazine and a raspberry liqueur brand have in common? Recently, Refinery29 and Chambord Liqueur discovered that there was a crossover in the people who were reading their articles and drinking their product—it was women who wanted their surroundings to reflect their personal style. Teaming up with the two clients, New York photographer Cory Dawson set out on a photo shoot that would accompany a do-it-yourself makeover story—sponsored by Chambord, published by Refinery29, and dedicated to offering simple tips on how to liven up a space and make it one’s own.
Because the shoot was sponsored by Chambord, a brand with such distinct aesthetic sensibilities, Cory says it had the feel of an ad campaign even though it was technically an editorial piece. Chambord has a specific set of brand colors, which played a big part in the planning of the shoot. Every prop and background had to be found and painted to match exactly with the Chambord branding and their idea of an “sophisticated quirky” living space. Cory was pleased to have a good amount of input with which of the Chambord colors they selected for the scenes, as well as creative input for the action shots and the angles of all the shots. Once they decided on all of the creative aspects of the shoot, they moved on to handle the technical elements.
They wanted each space to look and feel elevated with their “odd luxury” aesthetic.
Cory had shot a number of interior/décor projects for Refinery29 already, so Chambord was familiar with some of the style possibilities and actually decided to take inspiration from a previous shoot he had done for the publication. Cory says this made lighting easy, as he just had to replicate the lighting from the previous shoot. He says that he always visualizes the lighting design in his head, then builds an equipment list from there.
The actual story consisted of three scenes: The Bar Scene, The Living Room Scene, and The Office Scene, each with ideas for the do-it-yourself makeover. The Bar Scene features painting parts of stools gold (and why not dip a bottle of Chambord, too). The Living Room Scene features stitching a fringe fabric to a pillow. The Office Scene features gluing feathers to a simple lamp shade. Chambord wanted all the scenes to adhere to their color palate, which made the project really well suited for Cory’s aesthetic, but it also made finding the exact right props a bigger challenge.
My style is very graphic and I am not afraid to use color. The Chambord brand colors are bright and their style is very playful.
Setting up the DIY scenes involved Cory and his team doing some hands on work themselves. They had 4 wall sections total, and needed 2 walls for each scene, each with different colors. They made a plan to repaint the walls from the first shoot for the third shoot. Cory had the Chambord and Refinery29 creatives close at hand so they could sign off or make minor changes to the shots. “In this situation I make sure the images are processed and highly refined so the client doesn’t have to guess at what they are looking at or visualize what it might look like after post,” says Cory.
Chambord, Refinery29, and Cory all felt that the photos they captured spoke to the brand, the article intent, and the artistic standards they all came in with. Cory is pleased that both his clients were ecstatic with the final images, and he says that his own social media response to the images has been huge.
You can see Cory’s published images, along with the DIY makeover tips on Refinery29.
And be sure to check out more of Cory’s work at corydawson.com.