A 12-month photography bank for Vocation Brewery

The brief

On their journey to becoming one of the UK’s best-known craft breweries, Vocation Brewery wanted to take their visual identity to the next level.

For years, the brand handled all content in-house, but as they grew, the team recognised the need for premium content to succeed and differentiate themselves in a competitive market.

That’s when they approached us. Together, we set out to refresh Vocation Brewery’s look and feel with a suite of brand assets designed to work seamlessly across both B2B and B2C channels. The project spanned 9 different product ranges, from cans and gift sets to on-trade kegs and casks, requiring a mix of lifestyle and product imagery to be rolled out across social, web, POS, and in-bar promotions, all crafted to capture the energy, craft and character that define Vocation.

The challenges

Volume at scale with tight turnarounds

Vocation Brewery needed some assets imminently for upcoming B2B promotions and new product launches, so we were working to a seriously tight turnaround with just two weeks from sign-off to delivery. With so many products and settings to cover, we had to work smart… and fast.

Creating the Vocation Bar experience in studio

Yet the biggest challenge was location. Each Vocation Brewery bar has its own distinct look and atmosphere, but filming on-site wasn’t possible; it would have disrupted business over multiple days and was out of scope. Instead, we needed to recreate that same sense of authenticity in our studios, building immersive, inspired sets that looked and felt like the real thing.

Our approach

With such a wide range of assets to capture and Vocation Brewery aiming to make a big impact ahead of Christmas, time was of the essence. To keep things moving, we ran three rigs simultaneously, giving us the flexibility to pivot quickly between sets and maximise every minute we were shooting.

Rig 1 was our tabletop setup, designed for hero product shots. Products and colouramas could be swapped in and out effortlessly to boost e-commerce listings and product imagery. The rig’s generous size allowed us to include props like off-set fridges, making it easy to capture extra at-home content for the brand.

Rig 2 brought the outdoors inside. Using pub benches, foliage backdrops and astroturf, we recreated a lively beer garden scene, complete with our team stepping in as talent to capture those authentic lifestyle moments.

Rig 3 was where things got really interesting. Using virtual production, we built a series of immersive bar environments, from two bustling beer gardens to two distinct indoor bars, including a festive setup for Christmas. We even shot toward the bar itself, with our VP backdrop creating the illusion of a fully stocked venue.

To make the content feel as real as possible, we brought in a portable bar setup that let us pour beer fresh from the tap or straight from the keg. Each product had its own glassware and pump badge, allowing us to create specific branded assets tailored for both B2B and B2C promotions.

Beyond seasonal assets, this setup let us create evergreen content showcasing their best selling products across a variety of settings, extending past the original brief to future proof their content library.