Getting Hands On: A New Video & Still Campaign for Simpson Strong Tie

The first time I stepped onto the plant floor at Simpson Strong Tie five years ago I was surprised. All those manufacturing jobs you read about getting shipped off to other nations were right here. Apparently, I wasn't alone. You could chalk it up to shop class getting cut out of schools, or the push for four year liberal arts educations, but these solid trade jobs have a huge undersupply of skilled labor. 

We first pitched Simpson on an original content series centered on makers culture, which morphed into this recruitment campaign, Original Makers. We created three short mini films, a brand anthem film, and still photography to create enough assets to keep the campaign going for the rest of the year. As a San Francisco based video production company and creative agency we were able to handle all concept development, scripting, and execution on video and still production. 

The series of videos were shot with vintage Cooke glass to give a nostalgic feel to the scenes in the plant floor. We also used hard light sources to create a sense of golden light throughout the scenes.

Stills were produced on their own production day. We used a painterly post-production technique to give a hyper-real look to the photography.

Thanks for checking out the work! - Sean Donnelly, Creative Director & Director of Photography