Rob Evans and Chris Roberts from With Love project
For the last four years Rob Evans and Chris Roberts from With Love project have been searching out brands with passion and purpose. We met up with them in an Old Bank in Manchester, a unique space full of original features they occupy with a number of other creatives.
Downtime in Sweden meeting paper manufacturers for their book
Like any interesting brand, project or company we wanted to find out what made them tick, how they got started and what they had coming up.
How did you start With Love Project?
Our journey started four years ago and like all good ideas this one started in a pub. I’m an art director and designer and Rob is a photographer. At the time I’d just left a branding agency and it was there I’d commissioned Rob on a few jobs. When I left we got together to discuss a side project. We wanted one that could show off our combined skills. We are both into British fashion and decided to go and visit 5 fashion producers who are making stuff here in the UK and record their stories in a booklet. Nearly 100 visits, a few UK road trips, two books and a couple of short films later its safe to say the initial idea of little side project has taken us on is pretty amazing journey.
What would you say is your specialism now then?
We specialise in brand, creative direction, photography and film for companies who produce things with passion and purpose. We’ve spent the last four years meeting inspiring, brave, visionary people and telling their stories in our books and films, this focus has allowed us to build unique, powerful insight and knowledge in this world.
How have you made the transition from side project to creative business?
We’ve had plenty of up’s and down and worked with some testing clients because we thought any new business should fill every waking hour with work. After one particular project we sat down and decided to get back to doing things that we love. So now, each year we only take on six projects. One for us, one for good and four to stand beside. The ‘one for us’ gives us total creative freedom, we are the client. The ‘one for good’ isn’t for show, it’s not for free but it will help communities or the environment. ‘Four to stand beside’ are brands that put a fire in our belly, that have something to say, that just need a little help to fly.
What type of brands do you work for?
We only work with brands who inspire us and companies we respect. The world is too full of mediocre, faceless, parity products and services created with no joy, just for a bit of profit. Our deep expertise is in another, better, different world. We are always on the lookout for interesting British brands and that’s how we met and started working for Awling.
Rob and Chris shot the new Awling Autumn/Winter range for us and we wanted to know more about their focus for the campaign.
What was the inspiration for this shoot?
The shoot was inspired by your core ranges, ‘Modernist’ and ‘Original,’ and we decided to focus on architecture that fitted into these two categories. We looked for strong lines, stark silhouettes and textured backdrops to lead the visual aesthetic for the campaign.
Where did you shoot it?
We chose Manchester partly because we know it but mostly because of the diverse selection on architecture within such a small area. Luckily, and fairly unusually for Manchester, it stayed dry all day so we managed to get a great selection of shots with a range of different outfits.
What do you think of the range?
Honestly we think it’s great, even our least favourite belts looked amazing on. The stylist on the shoot did a great job and was really impressed with the quality and styling of the range as well.
What belts did you choose?
We both went with the Modernist range, it was the classic styling with a punch of colour that appealed. We’ve been wearing them now for the last few months and they are starting to age beautifully.
With two books published, one creative agency set up and numerous road trips under their belt (pardon the pun), we wanted to know what was next for these two creatives.
Have you got any other interesting projects coming up?
We’ve spent the last few years meeting inspiring, brave, visionary people and telling their stories in our books and films and we’ve always talked about opening a store. Thanks to the help of Standard Practice and NOMA that’s become a reality, based in Manchester from mid November for 6 weeks we’ve opened the With Love Department Store and it’s going really well!
And finally… What does style mean to you?
We both agree, style is personal, style is confidence, if you stick to what feels right for you, then you won’t go far wrong.
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Thanks for reading
See more: www.withloveproject.co.uk
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