Creative direction
Dyehouse — how a look is agreed
Before copy is cut and photographs are booked, the look must be fixed — tone, palette, casting, the quality of light that will run through every asset. The dyehouse is our name for that room: smaller than the main workroom, shelves of swatch books, a single lamp, walls painted the same black as everywhere else so colour reads honestly.
Tone workshops
We read sample paragraphs aloud in different registers — formal, plain, warm, spare — until the client recognises their voice in one of them. The chosen register is written down with examples of what to avoid. Tone is not "friendly" or "professional" in the abstract; it is specific sentences your team can imitate.
Workshops run for half a day when possible, in person on Kandahar Street. Remote sessions use shared documents with the same read-aloud discipline.
Palette and proof
Colour cards from the swatchbook are laid beside printed proofs. We test combinations under the brass lamp and in daylight from the louvres — screens lie, paper and thread do not. Primary, secondary and accent colours are named with hex values and usage rules: which carries headlines, which is reserved for calls to action, which never appears on photography.
Palette decisions are photographed and filed in the look book so remote teams match the room.
Casting photography
We brief photographers with casting notes — subject matter, light quality, composition, what to exclude. Reference images come from the swatchbook, not stock sites. Casting sessions review portfolios together until the client's material will look like it belongs on the same table as the proofs pinned in the studio.
Art-direction reviews happen on set when budget allows; otherwise we review selects the same evening and mark reshoots before the crew leaves.
Recording the look
Every decision lands in the creative direction look book — tone, palette, typography, photography rules, examples and counter-examples. The dyehouse closes when a stranger could open the book and art-direct a social post without asking questions.
See also Swatchbook for reference material we keep on the shelves, and Loom for how direction connects to the other disciplines.
From the workroom 1
The cutting table is where arguments end and proofs begin. Before any channel is named, we ask what the audience should understand after the first read — not what they should click. That discipline keeps launches from unravelling when media begins.
From the workroom 1
Thread tension is a useful metaphor for channel mix. Pull too hard on one platform and the story skews; leave another too loose and the message drifts. Orchestration is the practice of keeping every thread at the same tension until launch day.
From the workroom 1
Pinned proofs on the dark wall are not decoration. They are the campaign as it will look — headlines beside body copy beside photography notes. Clients who visit the studio read the wall before they read a deck.
From the workroom 1
Kampong Glam teaches patience. Textile shops close late; the lane quietens after ten. We match that rhythm — no midnight deck culture, no Saturday blasts unless the brief truly demands it. Clarity arrives on schedule, not on panic.
From the workroom 1
Brass lamp light is consistent across every proof. We colour-correct monitors against the same bulb so screen and print agree. Small detail, but drift starts in small details.
From the workroom 1
The selvedge edge is where we stop editing. Every engagement letter names what is out of scope as clearly as what is in — another edge that prevents fraying.
From the workroom 1
Writers and strategists share the same table. No account layer rewrites strategy into vague adjectives. The person who read your brief drafts the architecture document.