SONIC
Case Study
One of the best thank-you's we can get in our industry is when clients come back to us with more work, ideas, concepts and problems to solve. Even better, when those relationships grow together over many years. We've worked with Sonic and one of their creative agencies, Signal Theory, for the last decade helping establish food photography for their menu boards, passenger-side promotional displays and lifestyle photography showing those slice-of-life moments with friends and family at their local drive-in.
Over the years we've established a set of protocols that allow us to pick back up where we left off... a day, a week, or 6 months later. Creating and expanding a brand's visual identity, lighting style, food styling are just a few of the things we obsess over. We understand product offerings are always changing and expanding to meet the customer's demand and those new products need to family up with the existing library. And yes, the newest burger is going to look just as craveable as the first one (maybe even better with those crispy pickle fries)!
Keep reading to see samples of our work for Sonic and get into some of the nuts and bolts that keep us organized and on-track for each new project coming our way.
Thanks for being here, please reach out if I can help you on your project.
MENU STRATEGYFOOD IS HERO
And consistency is king. Camera angle, lighting, food styling all matter. The smallest details go into successful menu shots: bun color, burger patty char, bacon shape, pickle ridges, condiment visibility. With so many details you better have good notes (and boy do we). There are efficiencies learned and applied later down the road. There's no need to re-invent the wheel twice right? Not exactly, but have you seen how many wheels are out there?
take great notes
The ability to easily duplicate a shot always comes back to good note taking. We can barely remember what we had for dinner last night so without our cheat sheets we'd be wasting valuable time. We mark and measure everything from the camera, surface, lights, light modifiers and fill cards. Not only heights but distances, power ratios and software settings. It's important to us to ensure consistency across the entire library.
Those notes get stored in folders. Then in binders. Then in bigger binders. We love big binders.
it never goes out of styleCraveworthy
Big, bold shots
We call it CRAVE. Grab the camera and bounce around. Lean into looser food styling, more sauce, drips and melts. Capturing a lot of different angles, quickly. Let's build up a library of shots ready to shine brightly wherever they need to land.
oh hey there!When you pull into a stall at your local Sonic, the menu boards are on the driver's side and across from them on the passenger's side are promotional offerings that are changed seasonally. These displays are a mix of menu items and limited-time offerings that are shown in-situ around a common creative concept.
Additionally, other limited-time offerings as well as other promotional POP print images can be leveraged to remind customers of how much they really need a SONIC Blast!
On-lot PROMOS
And yes, I’m a nerd and LOVE seeing all of our hard work in the wild. And and, being able to tell my mom to go to a SONIC 1,400 miles away from me to see what I’ve been up to is pretty darn cool.
Thank you!
As you can tell it’s hard to summarize a long-term partnership. I absolutely love this stuff. Please reach out if you feel like I’d make a good creative partner for your brand!
I’m excited, how can I help?
