Tiny Giants

October 2020

“What is essential is invisible to the eye. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly”

Antoine de Saint Exupéry: “The Little Prince”

Just like that, kinda out of the blue one day, sometime a couple of months back, a truly magical collaboration between Tiny Om (Virginie & Sara), Verano Creatives (Summer) and ourselves was born. OK, to be fair, Summer – more than magic – had very much to do with orchestrating it… So, thanks Summer 😘 (and Tiny Om).

While the brief was to introduce Tiny Om’s brand-new collection “Seedlings”, the real treat – truly – was to immerse ourselves in this beautifully creative, feminine, emotional and spiritual realm, and indulge freely into some truly unrestricted emotional creativity…

And definitely, working on such a gorgeous, delicate brand, with such a beautifully soulful, creative, intuitive and sensitive bunch totally delivered well on expectation and beyond! Diving into Tiny Om’s DNA, we soon discovered the profound spiritual soul of the brand; how each piece of jewelry silently speaks of its wearer’s precious, secret, intimate, invisible emotional milestones: hurdles, joys, memories or wounds. The whole project; the people, the brand, the jewelry, the shoots… was a truly nice experience🧚‍♀️.

But just as you can never really storyboard the sheer power of a smile – words – especially when it comes to emotions, the heart, and the soul – can hardly compete with pictures 💕. So why don’t we let the pictures (both the final ones and the ‘behind the scene ones’) do the talking…

Client: Tiny Om

Photography: Summer Ameen @summerameens

Agency: Thalia DDB @graffiti_thaliaddb @thaliamermaids

Wardrobe: Basics by Nature @basicsbynature and Maison du Maillot @maisommaillot

Hair: Elio @elioh81

Models: Ruby and Daniela from Matty B Models @mattybmodels1

#ThaliaDDB #tinyom #summerameens #maisonmaillot #basicbynature. . #elioh81. . #mattybmodels

What Goes Around...

October 2020 (and also 1988 & 1978)

The Covid-induced lull provided an excuse-proof opportunity to tidy-up old files and archives. Our most dreaded one (obviously kept for last) was an entire filling cabinet literally packed-full-to-the-brim with thousands and thousands of client-related pre-digital-age photographs (transparencies of all shapes and sizes, for those of you who even remember what these were) – accumulated since the start of the agency in 1985!

This historical timeline will for sure be the topic of one or more other stories. But one in particular instantly came to mind, taking us back to around 1988. We'd then stared working with Directorate of Tourism. And we needed pictures. So they solemnly handed us their entire photo library: a yellow plastic basket full of 35mm Kodak slides.

Many had hand-scribbled annotations on the frame, and weirdly enough, the handwriting looked very much like François' mother's. Naturally this puzzled him greatly. 🤔🧐🕵️‍♀️. Now, sure: his mother had indeed lived in Bahrain a decade earlier and – equipped with her ubiquitous RolleyFlex camera – had always been a keen amateur photographer. But surely she would have preciously kept such photos within her extensive private collection. And there was no logical way by which they could have ended up in the hands of Tourism Directorate. Ah… well, someone obviously had a very similar handwriting…

Fast forward a few years: one fine day François casually mentions the story of the doppelganger handwriting to his mother and shows her one of the slides… “Ahah!” she laughs, “yes, these are my pictures indeed! How on earth did you end-up with them?”

“WHAT!!?? 😳😳😳 Well, YOU tell me!”

So here goes: back in 1977-78, when Francois’ parents were still in Bahrain, a French journalist had come over to write a report on the island for one of France’s top weekly magazines. The reporter needed photographs to illustrate her article and had turned to François’ mother who had kindly lent her a bunch of her personal pictures. Obviously, the journalist had also been in contact with the Tourism authorities, and had somehow eventually returned the photos to them rather than back to their author… And in the weirdest twist of fate they had ended-up back with her son ten years later! Wow! Talk of a coincidence!

And so, where are these pictures now? Well, who knows… Over the few years that we worked with Tourism, the magical yellow plastic basket kept shuttling between them and us. It seems its last stop must have been at the client’s – because it certainly no longer is with us 😢. But who’s to know… maybe someday we’ll come across them again 🕵️‍♀️… Afterall, their fiftieth anniversary is only eight years away!

And as the story shows, what goes around certainly does tend to come around – at least some of the time!!!...

#ThaliaDDB

As Seen on TV

September 2020

Not that we’re counting, but seriously: we must have done over a hundred shoots with Summer; still or video – in Bahrain 🇧🇭, in Kuwait 🇰🇼, in Saudi 🇸🇦, in Oman 🇴🇲… and even in international waters ⚓️🐬 somewhere between Bahrain and Iran. Not only that, and not only are we good buddies, but we even share our work/studio space, in a literally “mi casa es tu casa” arrangement.

So, it was no surprise, when she was approached by Bahrain TV to do a special report on her as the amazing award-winning photographer and film-maker that she is – that she naturally roped us into this yet again new and exciting adventure!

A date was set and off they went: Summer, Louise, Angie, along with Waleed Al Balushi from Bahrain TV, on an impromptu demo shoot in the souq, then into our shared space/studio/gallery/etc… (“the Secret Garden” as it is known) for interviews and all, before a more extensive interview of Summer herself took place at the BTV studio 🎥 📺.

Obviously, the BTV report will be telling the story best [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tt3sBFHplU ]. But thanks Summer, for including us in this little escapade from the routine, and congrats indeed, on your brilliant interview, your exceptional talent, and for getting the recognition you deserve 🏆. Much more of this in store for you, no doubt. (And rightly so).

#ThaliaDDB #SummerAmeen #BTV #SecretGarden