FIND Campaign | Edmonton Advertising and Commercial Photography

Hello! My name is Adam Borman, and I am an advertising and commercial photographer based in Alberta.

Late last year, I had the incredible opportunity to photograph a series of campaign advertisement images for a local Edmonton re-use centre called FIND. FIND is a social enterprise with two goals: providing essential furnishings free of charge to individuals and families who are moving out of homelessness, and supplying low-cost, quality furniture and housewares for sale to the public.

These images are some of my all-time favourite work I have produced. You can see the entire series, FIND YOUR FEEL GOOD, here.

Big credit is due to Justin Kowalczuk of Makespace, FIND’s advertising agency. Justin art directed this project, and it certainly wouldn’t have been nearly what it is today without his creative vision. Having seen my previous work, he reached out and slowly we began prepping for the large production ahead. 

We didn’t have concrete ideas of what items and products we wanted to capture, so product scouting began at the local antique mall. 

Once we had a better idea of what products were available to us, the pre-visualization of the images began while incorporating FIND’s colour palette. 

These were my initial (awful) sketches after I received the project brief of Justin. We knew we wanted to present a series of people showcasing items available for purchase at FIND in a unique way. We planned to incorporate elements indicative of my previous work, utilizing great colour and floating objects. It was also important to ensure that the pairs of images would align with each other when presented. 

Here are Justin’s immensely improved and refined sketches.

After the sketches of the images were settled upon, the rest of the pre-production stage began. 

In total, it took me roughly 30 hours of pre-production time to have everything ready for the shoot, including: meetings, planning, shopping, planning, sleeping, driving, gathering, thinking, drawing, emailing, hardware store trips (3), building/constructing, driving, dropping off, planning, etc… 

The most important part of the pre-production stage was the construction of the pegboard frame. Pegboard is indicative of FIND’s brand, and we wanted to include it in this series of images. I knew I needed about 8ftx8ft of pegboard to shoot against as a backdrop. Pegboard is available in 4ftx8ft sheets. My initial plan was to clamp two sheets to a crossbar, however, after purchasing the sheets, I realized how thin and flimsy the sheet were. There was no way a bunch of clamps and a crossbar would give me the support I needed especially if I was going to hang pictures, and tape seamless paper to the pegboard.

The solution was to build a set of frames and stands out of 2x4s.

Three trips were needed to bring all the items to the studio. I couldn’t have done it without the help of my Mom’s minivan. 

Pre-production was concluded with a 4-hour session the day before getting the set and lights in place for the first image. 

Shooting lasted a total of 13 hours on the first day. We captured the three portrait scenes. Each took about 3-4 hours to prep the set and shoot. Day 2, we shot the six final product images. 

Due to all the pre-production time put in, the actual shoot went off without a hitch! Not a single (big) issue to deal with! That’s the way I like it! 

Here are some more BTS pics.

Hair and makeup were done by the fantastic Amber Victoria Prepchuk. 

Huge thanks to my assistants, Katelyn and Helvin as well as all the models. 

View the entire campaign, FIND YOUR FEEL GOOD, here!