Diageo

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“Drinking is injurious to health”. Now that we have kept the omnipresent, omnipotent, all powerful Censor board happy, let’s talk about alcohol. Cheers!!

The brief was simple, Diageo is coming with a special and premium packaging for its product that needs to be showcased. The only caveat is that red is the house colour that needs to be shown and the golden colour of the bottle should be highlighted. A photographer’s dream brief. A blank canvas and we can paint it and shape it the way we want. Yay!!!! The product and the brand is one that is close to our heart! Many memories are attached with it, happy, fun filled, high (on life) memories. And now we get the opportunity in dressing an old companion in new clothes. Nostalgic bliss...

Alcohol loosens tongues but does not cut the red tape. By the time the approval on the final shoot was received, we had only 2 days to put together the set and the shot. A lesser man would have balked at it but we are Qench!! not a mere mortal. So we downed our pegs, tightened our belts and got to work (scout’s honour, we never drunk work...hic...)

It’s important to understand the brief and read between the lines. The message to be delivered is the premium packaging and not the bottle. But we also had to remember that the bottle is the eternal hero. So we had to strike the right balance between the box and the bottle. The box is the star of the scene but the bottle is the headliner of the film. All in a day’s work at Qench.

Ok so we had the central idea, red coloured gift wrapped boxes would be scattered in the shot highlighting the concept of diwali gifting. The photographer decided that all gift boxes will of different shapes and sizes but that only one type of paper would be used. Salute to the production team, the fabricator and the product stylist who created around a 100 boxes in that short time frame.

Now turning our attention to the play of colours and one of the points of the very brief. Red is the house colour and the boxes are in red so obviously we decided to go overboard with it. Red background, red paper, red ribbon, red strings. Somebody else would have created a image that induced nausea or a headache worse than a 2 tequila bottles hangover. Of course Qench pulled it off. But the credit of the bravery to give the go ahead of this idea lies with the creative director. Without him, we might have been languishing in only the above average with this shoot. It was his bold thinking that gave the impetus for this shot to adorn our hall of fame.

An interesting side note, the choosing of the exact shade of red was also a challenge. The first option that pops up is red formica- nah, too cliched, too boring. We went through a range of 8-10 shades of red velvet before we found one when we could all jump in ecstasy and cry, “This is the one!!! The one, the one, the only one”. Yes, we are still dead sober, it’s just our burning passion shining through the cracks.

And God said, ”Let there be light”. We say that too all the time. And we also create something timeless and memorable from it. Look at this shot. Red velvet typically eats light getting darker and turning to a shade of maroon. The shade & material we chose throws back the light and remains bright. In spite of this, the red does not scream at you. It is muted, sober, soft, highlighting the gold bottle and complementing it. This is the Qench brand of lighting magic. Capturing gold in all its glory and beauty was the fun of this shoot. The way it shines on the packaging and on the bottle is very different. If used properly, it becomes it’s own aura making it magical and ethereal. May we say, Voila!!!