The name Made to Last seems very apt for one of our clients. Because that's what our imagery is, made to last. Saying goodbye to photoshoots, and saying hello to forever editable images, forever re-stylable locations at the click of a button, and forever reusable fabrics. Made to Last are an online retailer with sustainability, durability and the British Manufacturing industry in its core values. Stocking solely British manufacturers, they provide everything home based from electricals to outdoor furniture, and everything in between. When they saw some realistic images that we were creating for one of their suppliers, and realised there were no photoshoots involved, they contacted us straight away. Removing the use of photoshoots also perfectly matches the sustainability factor of this forward-thinking retailer. Not only are they avoiding fast-fashion by supplying high-quality products, but cutting their carbon footprint and waste. Removing the idea of location shoots saves travel and delivery emissions, wasted prototypes, wasted fabrics, and on. Our images are completely recyclable. You only pay for a fabric, product or room set to be built once! so it is pretty gently on the long term budget too! With a new selection of recliner beds, Made to Last needed a room set of a traditional bedroom, that could house a collection of six electric bed ranges, in a selection of colours and sizes. With traditional photography, this would have cost the Earth, in precious employee time as well as money. And that’s our cue! We started by creating a mood board of images that matched their brief. A particular shot was chosen, and we went ahead with digitally recreating their dream location. We then got started on building each bed range and all the available fabrics in 3D. With this option, it allowed us to show the products in a variety of states. With the beds dressed, without the mattress, without incline, and showing off the electrical advantages of the recliner beds. Within a month, Made To Last had a package of images to populate their website, ready to upload, in their inbox. This week, we were happy to see our images, live on their website! No matter how many projects we finish, the feeling of seeing our creation hosed on someone’s website always gives us that sense of excitement and job satisfaction. The excited responses we get from our clients also helps! We can’t wait to get started on our next project with Made to Last, so make sure you keep an eye on their website to see if you can spot which images are from a photoshoot and which were created from nothing in our Studio. We don’t call it wizardry for nothing!In the past few months we have noticed more and more of our clients approaching us about creating AR/VR models, 360s and interactive walkthroughs. These are all powerful selling tools within the furniture and interiors industry, they have had a huge impact on a customers shopping experience. As this is something relatively new, it’s not a surprise that many of our clients don’t know where to start, whether it’s easy, or whether it’s possible. The only thing that has been holding technology back from having AR/VR models as a standard online is internet speed. With 4G we have seen many attempts at introducing AR/VR into the furniture industry, however, results aren’t photorealistic because the live rendering times are too slow. Trying to rush into this new realm can be exciting, but it can also mean that using this technology with 4G means that you have to sacrifice the realness of images, leaving them looking fake, which is what we strive to avoid at all costs. After a long wait, 5G is now here and quickly becoming a standard for the everyday. The newest development in technology has not only seen an incredible increase in internet speed and power, but it is about to change how we interact with our devices and how we shop online.
Within the furniture and interiors industry there are so many possibilities for what 5G can offer us. Not only will we have a greater capacity for data but we will also be able to access data with a delay of 1 millisecond (down from 40-50 milliseconds that we’ve seen with 4G). Due to the power behind 5G, consumers can now expect a more interactive way to shop. With live event experiences and more immersive media, customers and consumers should now expect to see more AR and VR models coming their way. We are advising our clients to prepare themselves now by getting all of their digital assets built and ready to go. Not only will they be prepared for this new leap in technology, but having digital assets is also great for their current online presence and online sales. Not only that, but as soon as the bandwidth is quick enough, all of these assets will be quick, cheap and easy with a level of realism that we can’t imagine right now.