What sparked this project?

The 150 year old art school, The Art Students League, boasts a legacy of prestige within the art world, however that prestige wasn't translating on their site, within their branded materials, and in the imagery of the school out in the world. With that they approached Greater to help them revive their brand and footing in the industry with a reimagined brand identity and new custom website.

Branding doesn't start and end at a fresh logo though and a website is only as good as the visuals that fill it, so we embarked on a journey to right that.

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What was the inspiration for this project?

The institution was not void of imagery, it is an art school after all. However, the photography on their site, their collateral, and the ads was just ok - it felt ordinary, mundane, and a little too much like stock photography.  The photos felt expected, what you might see on any collage's website - A smiling student in front of their art, crowded classrooms, and haphazard compositions.

As much as these images did the job, they didn't do the brand or the institution any service.  During the branding exercise we dove deep into the mission and purpose of the institution and found the key to elevating the League as a heritage brand was to champion the artists who walk the halls.

We felt it important that all the imagery and video on the site felt cinematic, more synonymous with  art than advertising or stock. We aimed to depict realistic scenes with natural light where the artist is the protagonist of the story. We aimed to create imagery that felt aspirational and romanticized studying at the League.

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Why did you choose to do the shoot on location?

Like with any shoot we started with art direction.  Considering deeply the context these videos and images would ultimately live in, as well as what they were trying to say. It was important that the imagery was shot on location with real League artists. The intention of the shoot was to highlight the light filled, expansive studios just as much as monumentalize the artists who study there as the next gen of American art. Careful consideration was taken with the artist chosen, their artwork, to the styling of their hair and clothing. Even the lighting, although amplified with studio lights, was created to mimic and emphasis the real life conditions of the sun shining through the studios pre-war windows.

What was the outcome?

The result of the shoot were 100s of cinematic photos and videos with an editorial flair. They ulitmately were used throughout the entire website and debuted with the site launch.

We opted to shoot videos at 60 frames per second to achieve a dreamier, artistic effect that lay somewhere in between reality and slow motion.  The compositions of the shots we intentionally focused on one or two artists at a time.  This was intentional to highlight the individual artistic journey, rather than a mass classroom feeling. Embodying the mission of the League, 'To provide the best art education, through atelier-style instruction, where artists can learn from their peers and inherit a legacy of technical skills and knowledge while cultivating their own artistic voice,'  the imagery portrayed each artist as immersed in their work, and their space as their personal studio.

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