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Guest Blog: Getting the Right Image
Did you see the fantastic publicity pictures for Olympia 2017? I did and was blown away by them. I made a mental note that I had to go and seek out Matthew Seed. I duly did and found myself standing open mouthed looking at the works of art on display. This is fine art photography at its very best. No filters, not touch ups, no editing just amazing, awe inspiring work.
Speaking to Matthew, I began to realise what went in to these shots. It was an educational half hour and I came away with a business card and a big thought in my mind. Could I get Matthew to work with us on rebranding our Hi Form supplements? I knew it would be a huge ask, as Matthew’s work is truly on another level.
Whilst I knew that he is a highly regarded photographer in commercial work with some of the biggest brands in the world, it would be a huge ask for him to take his passion, allowing us to use his equine work commercially, especially with a brand very few have heard of, that is new to the UK market.
Speaking to my business partner about this, she was as excited about the idea as I was.
Let me explain. We are the UK and Ireland Distributors of an Australian supplement company. The products stand head and shoulders above everything in terms of quality and quantity of ingredients but we felt that the branding and packaging for the UK did not do justice to what was inside the tub.
In January, once we had had time to think about this, I made a call to Matthew’s office and talked at length to Anne-Marie about our ideas for using our horses, who incidentally are all on Hi Form, and what we wanted to do. She said she would speak to Matthew and come back to us. It was a tense few days waiting to hear what Matthew’s verdict would be.
The call came in. The verdict was positive and yes, he would make an exception for us. We were overjoyed. It would seem that our passion for healthy horses using ingredients that are of the very highest quality, manufactured in a human laboratory, of oral grade and are fully complaint for clean sport struck a chord with Matthew – a parallel to his photography and his ethics.
On a cold February morning we found ourselves standing in a field with cameras and lights watching Matthew start to shoot. Our two horses were not the best behaved it had to be said, but there was ultimate patience from Matthew.
It’s amazing that in the freezing cold and biting wind we were actually pretty warm, totally engrossed in the click of the camera and the angle of the lights. We had a wary eye on the cloud formations too, keeping our fingers crossed that the rain would hold off. It did. Finally, we had everything in the can and we heard those words “it’s a wrap.”
A tense few days later we got the low res results. We were blown away. Somewhere close to 70 photos that we had to bring down to just one. With Matthew’s help we brought it down to 10 (so hard was it that we gave up), revised our original plan and decided to licence 4 of the images.
Matthew has even allowed us to use his signature on our labels. From the website to our supplement tubs these fantastic images are available for all to see. Every customer of Hi Form receives a work of art with every tub they buy.
Perhaps it is no coincidence after all, as both Matthew’s fine art and Hi Form’s supplements share very similar qualities – passion, untouched, highest quality, best of breed, attention to detail – just some of the descriptors that come to mind.
We are very proud that Matthew chose to allow his name to be associated with our brand, a one-off just like his fine art images.
Claire Hubbard
Hi Form Equine UK