Up on the Rooftops
A Case Study of MGV Photography’s collaboration with OVO and Snyder
For over a decade, MGV Photography has been producing a wide range of imagery for Snyder’s brand and corporate communication needs. In collaboration with the creative team from OVO, a branding agency based in Portland, the assignments originally focused on supporting the efforts to realign Snyder’s brand to better represent their services. From those beginnings, our work evolved, continually building and updating an extensive image library filled with authentic photography that showcases the exceptional projects and the talented people of Snyder.
The Project:
Snyder was originally founded in 1922 as Fred A. Snyder Roofing & Sheet Metal Corporation and has become a pilar in the Pacific Northwest’s construction industry. A proud history of enterprising ideas, hard work, family values, community involvement, and an unwavering commitment to safety have brought them to this prominent position, with a bright outlook for future growth and continued innovation.
Working closely with OVO, MGV Photography discussed the visual language that would serve to communicate these values. With a nod to Snyder’s storied history, and aligning with new brand positioning, we set out to create content that felt true to the company Snyder represents. Brand, marketing, and communication materials would feature a photo-forward design ethos, so nailing the photography was paramount to getting the branding job done right.
Creative Direction and Execution:
A documentary, journalistic photography style was identified, similar to previous work MGV Photography principal creative Mike Vraneža had produced on assignment for A/E/C clients like Kiewit and HDR. Additional styling options applied in post-processing of the digital raw files were discussed. Two filmic looks were created that could be applied as presets across all images, while remaining flexible enough for fine-tuning when lighting and composition changed from image to image.
Many of the initial featured locations were active construction sites, serving as an ideal environment to highlight Snyder’s expertise in commercial roofing and waterproofing jobs. Upon receiving each assignment, MGV Photography reviewed the details for each site, planning for project specific constraints. Considerations were made for location-specific photography goals, relationship to overall style guidelines, and to identify best timing for lighting conditions.
Our photography equipment kits started with a multi-camera and lens Sony mirrorless system, for flexibility and portability in challenging conditions, while also maximizing production value by retaining flexibility and efficiency to assure diversity and range in the images captured. To keep our footprint to a minimum, a single assistant would accompany the photographer to support multiple production tasks.
Most critically, throughout the process we continually prioritized understanding and assessing each site’s unique safety concerns. Safety is always our highest priority, on every shoot and every job site.
We also strive to minimize our impact on the work we are capturing by coordinating in advance, engaging with on-site foremen and project managers to assure the time is right for documenting each project. As when visiting any job site, workplace, office, or any place of business, we take great care to minimize or eliminate disruption of the operations and tasks at hand.
Our work with Snyder goes well beyond active rooftop jobsites. We have coordinated many other photo shoots, regularly expanding the content of their extensive image library. We photographed at Snyder offices in both Oregon and Washington, capturing everything form management level executives, to employee headshots, to the innovative shop machinists building tools to solve the most complex job requirements.
We captured innovative tools designed by Snyder in-house as a solution for a first of its kind project at PDX's terminal expansion.
Snyder has an extensive portfolio working on landmark buildings. Best shown from the air, we’ve executed extensive aerial photography assignments to show some of their biggest and best projects.
Editing & Delivery:
After every shoot, images were culled to remove duplicates and out takes, then batch processed to apply film emulating presets to further enhance a cohesive look. To complete our ISO invariant ETR workflow and maximize image quality, each photo then receives a final pass for refinement of color and contrast, utilizing the latest tools in object recognition for efficient, cost-effective image processing on our state-of-the-art editing workstation. Files are handed off for application across a wide range of uses. The photographs from the image library were applied on everything from marketing materials, to posters, to tradeshow booth applications, helping Snyder to apply brand thinking throughout the organization.
All photos were delivered as color and black and white using custom built presets for consistent results across every shoot.
Conclusion:
MGV Photography provides Snyder with digital assets that align with their brand, are featured in photo-forward communication applications, and speak to the values that have made Snyder such a respected company in the industry. Rather than stock photography or “a.i.” imagery, Snyder choses instead to invest in documenting the real people they employee, doing exceptional work to build the world we live in. The images we produce help define their corporate communications by moving authentic content to the forefront of their brand identity.
