BTS: Series 7 Photoshoot
Le Puzz drops series 7 today, which means another photoshoot to announce such an event is here, too. Our photoshoots get the same eccentric creative direction as our puzzles. Every idea is voiced, no prop is too large or small, and as many puns as possible are made into a visual reality. We indulge our funniest desires and become our most creative, silly selves. With the addition of our ready-for-anything talent, our set days are typically full of the wildest and most exciting moments of the year.
The location we picked for our most recent shoot was the historic George S. Bowdoin Stable in midtown Manhattan, a building that was once a horse stable in the early 1900s, it was transformed into a single family home and underwent significant rehabs between 1984 and the early 2000s, most recently houses the Henry George School of Social Science.
Series 7 art direction was inspired by the aesthetics of business. Not just any business, but puzzle business. When deciding on the details of the shoot, Alistair, Le Puzz's Co-Founder and photographer, took inspiration from her love of business suits and cool office aesthetics. The world she created was one in which the puzzle business is serious.
"I love the idea of people taking something that is fun way too seriously. Something meant to be leisurely and calming almost ruined when taken out of its intended context."
The talent was shot in a mirrored conference room, hovering over the copy machine and water cooler and around a fireplace. Each setting had larger-than-life prop pens and paper clips to bring the scene to life. Creating what we imagined an office could be. The talent constructed their characters and helped tell the story of this puzzle company. This story was carefully documented by Michael, Le Puzz's Co-Founder.
Above: The cast works on the Happy Birthday puzzle and has fun with some of the props.
Above: Some behind the scenes shots of the bored-room.
there is no “i” in puzzle
Get Down To BusinessThe Silly Business of Serious Puzzles
Productivity around the office was at an all-time low, and the team took the week to clear their calendars, cancel their meetings, and get back to basics. A faxed memo was placed on everyone’s desk that read, “All hands to the conference table for the morning meeting, we have some seriously silly business to attend to.“The word conference had been crossed out, and the word “puzzle” was handwritten in above it. Robert hasn’t seen a puzzle since the late 80s and was pleasantly surprised at the look and feel of the pieces. He could hardly contain himself with both joy and frustration throughout the week. It also happened to be his birthday mid-week so a small celebration was planned in his honor, the team took some short breaks for cake and punch in the break room. Reana could not hold back her inner project manager. At mid-day on day two she proposed a new strategy as the team seemed to stall close to the completion of Happy Birthday. Tensions were a bit high but it ended up being resolved once a few missing pieces were located that had accidentally been kicked under the board room table. Maddy and Bethany both felt a bit indifferent to puzzling at first, neither had really puzzled before, but by the end of day one the hunt for edge pieces had drawn them in. Bethany used her skills as a data analyst to determine which piece shapes were more likely to fit certain areas of the puzzle but had to take into account the random nature of the shapes in the sampling pool. She quickly drew up some charts and graphs to help the team stay motivated and paint a bigger picture of both their progress using statistics and analytics. Maddy quote, “liked it, it was ok” after the first day but at the end of day two she and Reece had raided the supply closet and were using office supplies in unconventional ways that really expanded how the team worked together to solve problems. Reese was used to creative problem solving as the director of marketing, but it was a challenge to break into some literal “out of the box” thinking in order to solve a puzzle. By 3pm on Friday, the team was exhausted and took time to celebrate their victories together, having solved each of the puzzles. Each member of the team gave a toast, including Robert, who reminded everyone that there is no “i” in puzzle, Reana clapped. Checking back with the team a month or so later, we discovered that productivity had remained about the same around the office, but everyone looked back fondly at the week of puzzling together even though it took everyone about two weeks to catch up on everything they missed. However, based on general morale around the office, corporate has already green-lit another week of puzzling for Q3 of next year.
The results of our shoot are largely theatric in the best way possible. The aura of each photo feels so real we might just walk right in and join in that strategy meeting or crunch some puzzle numbers.
