De Buyer
Art Direction & Production
A multi-day photo and video production for a 185-year-old French cookware brand. I led all on-the-ground execution in Chicago while collaborating remotely with de Buyer's Art Director in France, producing content built to work across social, e-commerce, and a trade show floor.
Backstory
The Brand
de Buyer has been making professional-grade cookware and baking tools in France since 1830. Their carbon steel pans, mandolines, and kitchen equipment carry real credibility in culinary circles, and the brand occupies a specific and earned position: heritage craftsmanship that serious cooks trust. The visual content had to reflect that without tipping into inaccessibility.
The goal was content that could speak to a professional chef and stop a home cook mid-scroll.
The Brief
The ask was a full evergreen content refresh: multi-day production covering both photo and video, with a deliverable library built to span social, website, and trade show use. One production, every channel, a wide range of formats.
The scope required lifestyle warmth, craftsmanship-forward product photography, recipe video, and trade show-ready imagery, each pulling in a slightly different direction creatively but all needing to hold together as a cohesive body of work.
Creative Direction
A brand with de Buyer's history doesn't need to shout. The visual approach leaned into that from the start: a craftsmanship-forward aesthetic grounded in real cooking moments, with lighting and styling that honored the quality of the product without over-producing it. The work needed to feel equally at home in a trade show booth and in a social feed. Those are genuinely different registers, and finding the through-line between them shaped every decision on set.
I collaborated virtually with de Buyer's Art Director throughout pre-production and the shoot itself. Working within their creative framework while leading all execution on the ground in Chicago meant translating a remote creative vision into real production decisions in real time, from how a pan was lit to how a lifestyle setup was framed.
From Start to Finish
The project ran for over a month of daily shooting and editing. I led the full creative process from pre-production planning through final delivery, working alongside my associate photographer Ana Puga.
Pre Production
Pre-production covered the full scope: talent casting, crew assembly including photo assistants and food stylist, location and prop planning, shot list development, and schedule coordination across multiple shoot days.
At this scale, the pre-production work is what makes the shoot possible, and it's where the channel strategy had to inform the creative from the beginning. A shot built for trade show print reads differently than one built for a 9x16 social crop. Both were on the list.
Production
On set, I led all photography and video capture across still and motion formats, directing talent and managing crew through a demanding multi-day schedule.
The goal was quality on every individual frame regardless of where we were in the day or the schedule.
Post Production
Post-production delivered the full asset library: social content, website imagery, recipe video, and trade show materials. One production, everything de Buyer needed to refresh the brand across every channel they operate in.
Final Deliverables
