Weber Barbecues
Role: Lead Creative covering Art Direction, Design, Content Development, Copy Writing and (occasional) Food Styling.
I was the lead Creative for Weber UK for 7 years, overseeing all output for the brand at this time. It was a varied, fun and delicious client and I loved every minute of working with them.
Anything and Everything
The scope of creative was vast and I worked in it all. From designing and writing for a quarterly customer magazine, brochures, POS and exhibition stands, to planning and art directing and even food styling photoshoots on location and in studio.
Weber Life Magazine
A quarterly magazine for Weber consumers designed to inspire and educate the customer about all things Weber; how varied the menu can be, that barbecues are not just for summer, new product launches, features about celebrity barbecuers, and of course lots and lots of recipes.
I was a big part of the content creation for these magazine, from coming up with initial paginations and article ideas, to researching, writing, designing and art directing any photography requirements.
They became really successful and towards the end brands like bart’s spices, kettle chips and cadbury were placing full page ads with us.
Positivity, Enjoyment and Togetherness
The products are really good quality, the scope of what you can cook is unbelievable, as a foodie myself, I loved this brand so much, and the proposition was always feel good, family and food - what more can you ask for?!
Solex Exhibition Stand
Weber don’t sell their products direct to consumers, so it’s very important for them to maintain good relationships with their retailers, The Solex stand they held each year was the perfect platform to tell retailers in one fell swoop about any changes or exciting developments the brand would be undertaking for the future. I designed the stand for them each year, this one’s my favourite.
Weber were moving their UK HQ from Skipton to London as the European head office saw London as a gate-way for growing the brand, so with the proposition of “Weber is taking off” we themed the stand as a luxury airport lounge. Complete with ‘in-flight magazine’, movie posters casting the best 5 BBQs as action heroes, BBQ accessories as high fashion and even dressed Weber’s staff as airline crew.
The Big Five.
Poster from the exhibition casting the best 5 BBQs as action heroes.
Studio food photography
From desserts, to roasts, to pizza, and everything in between. The food photography needed to be inspiring and show the customer the scope of what can be cooked on a Weber barbecue.
Ahead of the shoots I planned the recipes and created the shot list, sourced props and briefed the food stylist. On the day I would be double rigging, directing two teams to get through as many shots as possible in one day.
More brochures than I can count
Admittedly, I’m not great at maths, but it’s safe to say over the years I created a lot of brochures, flyers and recipe cards for Weber. For many of them I wrote copy and devised specific articles/content as well as designing and art directing any imagery which was required. Also over-saw other designers and artworkers in the roll-out of the many and varied publications.
The Grill Academy & Weber Experience
Weber opened a cooking school in Oxfordshire called the Weber Grill Academy and an associated mobile teaching and demonstration vehicle.
For these projects I was involved in fitting out the new Grill Academy building with graphics, signage and mini-Weber store, working with the PR agency on the launch event, art directing promotional photography, designing large format banners and much more. The demo vehicle was an old American Airstream which Weber has shipped over and refurbed and we designed the vehicle livery and all associated promo and teaching materials.
