10 Woodcock Street Commission Client: BCC 10 Woodcock Street Aston Birmingham, B7 4BG 10 Woodcock Street is Birmingham City Council's new flagship office building that is providing a working environment fit for the 21st century. As well as being welcoming, modern and comfortable the building creates a sustainable environment and acts as a catalyst for new working practices and cultural change within the organisation. The new workplace, located over five floors, provides a flexible working environment accommodating 2,200 workstations and a base for around 3,000 employees. The building design by Associated Architects recognises the need to achieve value for money whilst providing an enhanced working environment and improved customer service for the citizens of Birmingham.
The Project Outline and Brief Photography for 10 Woodcock Street Project title:
Aloysia Carnell is a client that I have worked with over the last two years to produce content for online marketing, and she works for Customer Plus who are contrators for Birmingham City Council. Aloysia wanted to collaborate with BCU on this project and as a result, I became the project coordinator to oversee delivery of the project over a two month period. The client treated this as a professional commission, and after the brief was defined I sourced three MA photography students to work on the project. These were: Martin Francis, Billy Chan and Mao.
10 Woodcock Street - Best Corporate Workplace UK Background information: 10 Woodcock Street has won the British Council for Offices (BCO1) national award for Best Corporate Workplace. This is a very prestigious award winning against impressive buildings where money was no object. More important than any trophy is the people who work out of Woodcock Street and the way the building works for us all. The feedback from the BCO judges was that they recognised a real community feel within the building, something which sets us apart from other workplaces. We are very proud of this achievement. Aim: Produce a photo montage of Birmingham City Council staff with the BCO trophy in their everyday working environment. Usage: · The photo montage will be displayed in 10 Woodcock Street to raise awareness of this great achievement and will assist in celebrating this success. Project requirements: · Meet with Aloysia Carnell to talk about your response and ideas after reading the Photography Design Brief. Discuss how the brief will be delivered and let Aloysia know your requirements for before, during and after the photography day(s). · Come to 10 Woodcock Street to take the photographs. · Produce a photo montage of sixty2 photos of Birmingham City Council staff holding the BCO trophy in their everyday working environment. · Put wording alongside or as a part of the montage that describes the Award e.g. ‘Birmingham City Council – Winners of The British Council of Offices National and Regional Award 2013 for Best Corporate Workplace for 10 Woodcock Street.’ · The draft photo montage will be sent/shown to Aloysia Carnell · The final montage will be revealed to a small group of Directors/Heads of Service and Staff before it is displayed. · Montage installation.
· Aloysia Carnell will give feedback to the photographers post-installation · All three panels are on display in the foyer area in the recepton at 10, Woodcock Street
Client Feedback The project commenced in January 2014 working in partnership with Birmingham City University, professional photographer Dave Remes and Birmingham City Council (BCC) to produce a piece of photography artwork to be installed at number 10 Woodcock Street; BCC’s winner of the Best Corporate Workplace in the UK. The team of three Birmingham City Council Masters students was established: Billy Chan, Mao Xiangyu and Martin Francis acting as Project Team Lead. The team worked alongside Dave Remes, Project Mentor and I, Aloysia Carnell, Project Manager. The team’s skill set was strong containing skills of: documentary style photography, portrait photography, graphics, logistics management, effective procurement, team working, organisation, communication, punctuality and creativity. Furthermore the team were kind, thoughtful and behaved respectfully in our workplace. They were energetic, collaborative and hardworking. In addition to all of this, what made this team extra special was that each of the photographers had a beautiful, developing style and an advanced aptitude for using cameras, flash and photographic equipment. The success of this project was down to having a clear initial brief that had the ability to move and flex with input as the project developed. It was also down to high levels of clear, professional and meaningful communication and support between all leads: the Project Mentor, the Project Manager and the Project Team Lead, who then passed relevant information down to the Team Members. The guidance from the mentor was paramount, as was the aforementioned outstanding skill of the photography team. The end result is fantastic. We are wowed by the results. Thank you! Aloysia Carnell Communications (:| 01332 840422 | 07714 486558 | aloysia.carnell@customerplus.co.uk postal address: BPS, PO Box 16255, Birmingham, B2 2WT sat-nav address: 10 Woodcock Street, Birmingham, B7 4BL http://www.customerplus.co.uk/ | LinkedIn
Student Feedback Practical Photography I found it valuable to shoot varied subjects in an exciting, modern setting. I was able to apply learned lighting and photography skills in practice. Your advice in engaging with sitters and posing was also very welcome. Project Management Aloysia was very accommodating with every aspect of arranging shoots. Feedback from Aloysia was constructive. Billy and Mao have proven to be able to work to a brief. I feel I have been able to direct and manage the project effectively. I was able to identify design challenges and adapt to overcome them. Gains I feel I have gained confidence to deal with clients and negotiate a final production. I have gained experience in managing a team of photographers. I have applied theoretical skills in photography, lighting and design gained over years of education in a project with practical results. Other notes I was glad to participate in this project. I feel we achieved the goals set in the initial project brief, that my team performed to the level expected and that our clients were satisfied with our work. I am particularly proud that, given my understanding of Mao and Billy's particular styles of photography (as well as my own), we were able to maintain a consistent visual style that embodied the environment without compromising on our own style. I appreciate the helpful advice and feedback from yourself, both on site and afterwards; and also all of Aloysia's hard work in arranging busy people together for our shoots. Thanks,
The BCC project is my first experience of shooting commercial photography. To be honest, i feel a bit nervous at the beginning. Through the photographs I have research on the internet, I could know the category of content should the pictures looks like and then download images into my phone to use for references. In the process of shooting commercial portrait, I will talk and shooting pictures for staff, so the point is communication with people. Talk with the people before shooting could make photographer and staff more relax and confidence. I used to be shooting without talking with model, and it always make the model confused about my request of action. In the BCC project, even though my English isn’t very well but i still keep talking to the model make their relax do my best. Due to the limited shooting condition, not everyone in the building would like to be a model. In the documentary shooting day, I should ask for permission before take pictures, which means i need select people to document. In this case, i have to capture the moment without their noticing. This could be the hardest part of the project. It is important to classify the position of staff to chose place and element take pictures. In the process of shooting for the kiosk staff, i have chose the bright coloured sofa as background to present the optimistic side of staff. Depends on David advises, ask staff puts their head on the sofa make good composition and effects. To conclude, it is my honour to be a part of BCC project and very happy work with David, Aloysia, Martin, Billy and other staffs. From beginning of the project to the end, we three carry out our duties to shooting, arranging and editing pictures. Eventually, through the team collaboration finish a entire project, and my first official project in England. At the end, I want to thank everyone in the project, your make me better. Looking forward collaboration next time!
Martin Best Regards Mao
Student Feedback
My Feedback
We had a talk after the first meeting, three of us (Mao, Martin, Me) decided to separate the work. Martin did the first one shooting and finished the final editing. Mao and Me were going to do the others, which included group pictures, documentary working environment and some of the events.
This project has immersed the three students involved in a professional, collaborative and multifaceted project that has provided them the opportunity to further develop their skill sets, and get a ‘real world’ experience through engagement with marketing and communications professionals at a high level.
In the first day, on the one hand, even Mao and me had talked about the project and prepared some of the ideas, did some research of posting and lighting and download it in the iPad and mobile phone. I had felt a bit nervous to work with those people, because I do not know how to told the people what I want. However, Dave helped us a lot. In the whole shooting process in that morning, the technique problem always happened, the flash was not fire; even, we borrow three flashes for safety and we were using two of the flashes in the same time, but still could not made our work smoothly.
The project outcomes have far exceeded the clients’ expectations and they have decided to publish the images in a book that will provide visitors and other professionals, with an interest in architecture and ergonomic design, to further explore this unique building.
Secondly, we were going to do some group pictures in that morning, we did not know how to prepare the shooting location, because we did not know how many people were coming. Even so, Dave, who has many years’ experiences, gave us many suggestions to help us. On the others hand, we are going to take some images for the chief of the Birmingham City Council. Mao and Me found out the location, we set up the lights and waiting for people came down. Quickly, we took some images. Although they were not like the pictures style and lightings, because we took it with lower angle and wide lens, the lens transform was a bit out of control, and we took another images for safety.
Overall, that is a great experience for me and let me practice what I learnt. I am happy with meet with those people, and saw the final work. Billy Chan
For this project they had to work to and decipher the brief, create a project plan and schedule and work with existing branding to incorporate this into the finished designs. They also had to source printers and provide costs that would be in line with the budgets available. The second phase of the project was to shoot video content for a visit from overseas partners during May. Unfortunately I was unable to secure a small team to mentor on this project, but I have just finished the short film that can be seen here: http://youtu.be/uY_suncvwAE The team at Woodcock Street want to work closely with BCU on further collaborations.