Skincode

For their latest products, Skincode contacted us to make some creative visuals. A super powerful re-energising booster to revive skin and a defining gel to keep legs and body in perfect shape. After several drafts testing different techniques to match the two very different briefs we delivered these illustrative images to a very satisfied client.

3D/CGI & RETOUCH: Johan Svensson
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Who said it was easy filming the new train SJ3000 in Sweden?

“Hi Tomas, It’s Lina Söderqvist here from King. We are closing for a holiday next week and I was wondering if you could help us with our client SJ (Swedish Railway Company). They need some help with a few projects while we are away.”

Bsmart opens its doors in Cape Town

Nine years ago I travelled to Cape Town to study the fantastic light and the beautiful locations that I had heard so much about. I was completely overwhelmed. Three years later I returned for a photo shoot for the book Tutti Frutti that I was planning with my friend Klas Lindstrand. Needless to say, I fell totally in love with South Africa once again. This new love together with a passion for visual imagery was the beginning of an idea for a new Bsmart venture. Commuting backwards and forwards to South Africa over the last few years has given me both time and experience to plan and prepare. Finally, this autumn we will be opening up a studio at Camps Bay i in the centre of Cape Town. All the services we offer in Stockholm will now be available there, on location. Cape Town is even in the same time zone as Stockholm! As well as photography, 3D/CGI and retouch we can help you find locations and local models and even take care of your whole production. Come and join us this winter in the south african sun!
Tomas Lestrup, CEO & Founder

Please contact tomas@bsmart.se for more details regarding our new services in Cape Town.

LOB design

LOB design are renowned for producing home accessories and table top articles in the latest Scandinavian design so we were more than happy to help create their latest catalogue for this Autumn/Winter 2011. Petra Östh was the stylist for the main images.

RETOUCH: Erik Hemmingson
DESIGN & FINAL ARTWORK: Martin Dickins
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Products in harmony

Swissline is a swiss born company providing anti-aging products.The debrief from Swissline’s AD Lara Wyss was to find a creative solution that would reflect the qualities of the specific products. Our 3D artists, retouch artists and photographers sat down to brainstorm some ideas. Some were a little too modern and some were a little too advanced. The final idea and image though was a great success and resulted in an extremely satisfied client.

PHOTO: Pekka Stålnacke
3D/CGI & RETOUCH: Johan Svensson
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Front page news!

There was a very nice surprise waiting for us in the inbox this morning. One of our images is covering the front page of the Weekend Journal of The Wall Street Journal. This gives us a great reason to celebrate (as if we need one). So Kalle Gadd (Art Director at Razorfish), when you read this, come on over and join us for some champagne. Cheers!

PHOTO: Pekka Stålnacke
RETOUCH: Johan Svensson
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Catch-22 (a no win situation)

We are quietly happy with our achievement in this years swedish competition Årets reklambild (the swedish ‘Ad image of the year’). With Press Stop’s image campaign ‘If you love music’ and ‘20 years of cars’ Bsmart together with Sweet Creatives shared 2nd and 4th place. We were naturally proud to have our president Tomas Lestrup in the jury but with him not being able to vote for the Press Stop image this was perhaps a bit of a catch-22 occasion…

We do however congratulate the winning photographer Peter Alendahl. We are looking forward to the challenge again next year. See more here http://www.resume.se/nyheter/2010/12/15/har-ar-arets-reklambild/

Red. Raw. Fashion.

RedDevil prides itself in stocking the latest fashion garments, often inspired by London’s Carnaby Street. You’ll find the RedDevil stores in the centre of Stockholm and Gothenburg. RedDevil has been a welcome client to us for over 10 years and in this case, as the saying goes, “Better the Devil you know!”

PHOTO & RETOUCH: Bsmart
DESIGN & FINAL ARTWORK: Martin Dickins
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Smoother than ever

Milda, the family butter by Unilever, has recently been given a new form by Lowe Brindfors. Lotta Nannmark and Joakim Norrman came to us with this mission to visualise this classic swedish butter.

PHOTO: Pekka Stålnacke
RETOUCH: Anna Nordstedt
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

It’s not the thickness that matters

Is this as thin as it can get? What’s next, a virtual screen? Whatever, Samsungs design programme is always pure paradise for the drooling artists at Bsmart. Art Director Björn Ekdahl came up with this challenge for Bsmart to illustrate Samsungs new LED TV (Light Emitting Diode). Voila! (NIP)

PHOTO: Martin Brunn
RETOUCH: Erik Hemmingson
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Work and play

During a leisurely autumn walk in the city centre of Stockholm I was almost overwhelmed by emotion. Away from the studio, in the fresh chilly air, I was warmed to see these light boxes all over the city. Sometimes there is just no getting away from the work of Bsmart. In a good way that is.
/ Tomas Lestrup, CEO & Founder

As cute as kids can be

How can one resist these images! Its always fun to work with kids when it comes to photography – its like having a party in the studio. Frida Ström and art director Yvonne Flügel made it happen.

PHOTO: Frida Ström
RETOUCH: Roger Sandberg
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Well burnt. Easily washed.

Yes! Today we had the opportunity to show off our barbecuing skills – turn on the grill and turn up the heat. A simple mission to bring to life an excellent idea from art director Lars Hörnström at Grey Stockholm.

PHOTO: Hans Carlén
Retouch: Anna Nordstedt, Frederik Tennholt
Stylist: Tomas Lestrup
Producer: Bsmart

Letters awake strong emotions

PHOTO: Pekka Stålnacke
RETOUCH: Roger Sandberg
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Probably the longest fruit picture in the world

Fredrik Grüneberger from Willys contacted us for this project. They needed some pictures of some fruits to be used as large format prints to be set up around the whole circumference of their fruit rooms. 55 meters of fruit is certainly a lot of fruit.

PHOTO: Martin Brunn
RETOUCH: Roger Sandberg
FINAL ARTWORKS: Martin Dickins
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Release the power

The brief from Björn Ekdahl at Cab Stockholm was to create an image of a hand and even a football pushing through a TV screen. Would 3D achieve the best results or would it be photo? The challenge was on. For this project we initially started sketching using both techniques. Working closely together at Bsmart we could quickly give feedback to the client. 3D artist Roger launched Cinema 4D and photographer Pekka began stretching a gigantic balloon material across a framework. After close inspection of both the 3D and photographic sketch we decided that the photographic images in this particular case gave a more natural and authentic feel. Needless to say the client was very pleased with the final results. Photo won this particular pitch and we will continue to push the boundaries using both techniques.

PHOTO: Pekka Stålnacke
RETOUCH: Roger Sandberg
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Product visualization for Falcon beer

The Swedish brewery Falcon has been around since 1896 and the latest packaging design for Falcon beer was conceived by Lars Baecklund and Olov Öqvist from Åkestam Holst. We began this project by initially creating visualisations for a few products but we ended up visualising the entire range of Falcon beer. 31 products in total, including boxes, 6-packs, 4-packs, bottles and cans.

3D/CGI: Frederik Tennholt, Roger Sandberg

Big beer bubbles

The back end of a truck is a pretty good advertising space for promoting beer in the summertime. With the ad being in such a large format, our co-creators Fredrik Josefsson and Bella Lagerquist at Åkestam Holst were quite pedantic about the quality of the water droplets. With a little ‘magic’ from our retouch and 3D artists the ice cold beers were soon looking pretty refreshing.

PHOTO: Hans Carlén
3D/CGI: Roger Sandberg
RETOUCH: Anna Nordstedt
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Product visualization

New mug design for Pressbyrån/Åkestam Holst.

3D/CGI: Frederik Tennholt, Roger Sandberg
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Breakfast at Pressbyrån’s

Shooting new menu images for Pressbyrån was Pekka Stålnacke’s first job at Bsmart. Art director Fredrik Josefsson from Åkestam & Holst was on the set.

PHOTO: Pekka Stålnacke
RETOUCH: Erik Hemmingson
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Delicious desserts

Gustaf Boman, our friend at Tackolov, walked through our doors with two bags of strawberries for this photo shoot. Yummy! Art directors planning delicious desserts are always welcome at Bsmart as the final results are often consumed on site. These desserts turned out to be extra long ice cream boats. Not a bad day at all.

PHOTO: Hans Carlén
RETOUCH: Roger Sandberg, Frederik Tennholt
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Bottoms up!

We have been creating ads for the swedish wine importer Apricot for over five years now and their sales are continuing from strength to strength. Cheers to that! Or as we say here in Sweden ‘Skål!’ (pronounced ’skoal’).

DESIGN & FINAL ARTWORKS: Martin Dickins
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Roofless and loving it

Award winners Rickard Villard and Patrick Westerdahl of Lowe Brindfors are a couple of real creatives. Their SAAB campaigns are renowned worldwide and we were highly motivated for this brilliant idea. In this campaign for their all-year-round convertible, the SAAB dream is still alive!

PHOTO: Frida Ström
RETOUCH: Erik Hemmingson
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Lets go retro

With a strong desire to go analogue, Forsman & Bodenfors teamed up with Jesper Kouthhoofd to make (yes, to actually make) a pop-up book to show the diversity of Ikea kitchens. The process of actually making a pop-up book is usually quite time consuming and in this case there was none. The deadline for the book was in just 4 weeks time. Kouthhoofd got in touch with Sandberg & Timonen who were to be responsible for the book’s design, and they in turn hired us for the photography of all the people and props seen in the scenes. Extensive retouch work was also required – out of one kitchen we had to create three. With such a tight schedule everyone had to be on the set and the retouching was carried out more or less simultaneously to enable fast feedback. After the finishing touches were made the pictures were printed, cut out and mounted. This successful retro project resulted in extensive TV coverage.

PHOTO: Frida Ström
RETOUCH: Erik Hemmingson
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Hand in Hand for a better world

This was a charity production for Percy Barneviks Hand in Hand project. Hand in Hand works mainly in underdeveloped countries eliminating poverty through sponsorship of new businesses and enterprise creation. A worthy cause.

PHOTO: Bsmart
RETOUCH & FINAL ARTWORKS: Martin Dickins
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Friends in Switzerland

Cosswiss, with Niclas Massalsky in the frontline, are our good friends from Zürich. They asked us for some help with some images for the launch of their new website. For this project we had the opportunity to use our photo equipment not just behind the lens but also in front of it. For us, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. See more at www.cosswiss.com

PHOTO: Lovisa Engblom
RETOUCH: Erik Hemmingson
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Let there be light

Communication agency Kompago was selected by lighting specialists Fagerhult to create a campaign for the launch of their new outdoor range, Fagerhult Outdoor. The team, consisting of Joakim Blomquist, Pär Löfstedt and Fredrik Polback, wanted to emphasize the importance of good outdoor lighting by illustrating the same location with and without illumination. The project resulted in an ad campaign as well as a product catalogue.

PHOTO: Frida Ström
RETOUCH: Roger Sandberg
3D/CGI: Frederik Tennholt
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

In love with art glass

Creative director Johan Ronnestam was working with Kosta Boda to help promote their brand to a slightly younger generation. It was all about the ‘loving struggle’ to obtain the glass and the idea was to create a ’swarm’ of hands around the object. To achieve this we made thousands of exposures and worked on different poses and shapes of hands. It soon became obvious that the art director, photographer and retoucher needed to be on the set at the same time. Simultaneously we continuously updated a rough retouch to make sure that things were on the right track. Sketching with low resolution images became a trademark for this project. Each of the final images required around 30 hours of retouching and each file, including all the layers, increased to around 8Gb. One of the original ideas and final achievements was for the glass piece to act as a source of light within the image and its glow to reflect onto the hands. We think that the final images shine too.

PHOTO: Hans Carlén
RETOUCH: Bsmart
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

Friction Fighters

Just imagine… a pony, a pig, a chick, a rabbit, a cat, a lamb, a budgie, a goat, two dogs, a hamster and a mouse… all hustling to get into our photo studio at the same time! AD Fredrik Östergren from Tempel came up with the idea for this campaign and we all had a lot of fun creating these images. The final 12 ads were published in motor magazines throughout the year.

PHOTO: Bsmart
RETOUCH: Bsmart
FINAL ARTWORKS: Martin Dickins
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup

The Golden Egg Awards

Golden Eggs are awarded every year in Sweden for the most creative and modern communication solutions. In collaboration with AD Jakob Swedenborg from Farfar, Bsmart was responsible for all the photography, final artworks and print surrounding the events advertising. Invites, posters, adverts and brochures were created for the launch of the event and thereafter for the presentation of the award winners.

For some good old advertising stories download a pdf of the above adverts here…

PHOTO: Bsmart
RETOUCH: Bsmart
FINAL ARTWORKS: Martin Dickins
PRODUCER: Tomas Lestrup