Category: Photography Direction

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Catering by Windows — Advertising and Print Collateral Design

Catering by Windows French menu system folio showing high-key food photography, elegant white space grid layout, and warm typography designed by Keith Bloom for their flagship catering menu

Catering by Windows was one of Washington DC’s premier full-service catering and event companies — capable of producing an elaborate tented dinner for 300 or an intimate luncheon for 20, with equal attention to elegance, detail, and the particular personality of each occasion. The brief called for printed materials that communicated that range without sacrificing the visual sophistication their clientele expected.

The Bloom Agency handled advertising, catering menu design, and event catalog production for Catering by Windows’ flagship printed collateral — a sustained engagement across multiple major projects in the early 2000s. The work spans two distinct visual registers that speak to the breadth of the client’s offering: a refined, high-key French menu system built around clean white space, warm typography, and intimate food photography; and a rich, jewel-toned wedding and special events collection anchored by dramatic tablescapes, tiered wedding cakes, and the quietly confident campaign line “We do…” — two words that do everything simultaneously.

Photography direction for both systems was my responsibility, conducted on location in Catering by Windows’ facility showrooms and commercial kitchens. Getting food and event photography right at this level requires more than a skilled photographer — it requires someone who understands both the visual language of luxury hospitality and the specific story each image needs to carry within the larger collateral system. The fig imagery that anchors the French menu system, the candlelit tablescapes in the wedding brochure, the precise arrangement of prepared dishes in the catering catalog — all of it was directed and produced to serve the design rather than the other way around.

The engagement also included a co-branded collateral piece for Catering by Giant — a partnership between Catering by Windows and Giant Food that required a dedicated sub-brand identity and marketing materials carrying both partners’ visual presence with coherence and appropriate hierarchy.

Across both folios the Windows logotype — a custom wordmark in which the double-O carries a distinctive window pane graphic — anchored a consistent brand presence through every format, from full-size event catalogs and multi-panel brochures to direct mail and advertising pieces.

Creative Direction; Photography Direction; Copy Writing; Production Management; Account Executive

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Boar’s Head Inn — Advertising Campaign and Photography Direction

Boar's Head Inn advertising campaign folio showing segmented print ads for leisure escape, meetings, dining, and spa markets — all anchored by the It's at the heart of our charming inn campaign line — creative direction and photography direction by Keith Bloom for The Meridian Group

The Boar’s Head Inn in Charlottesville, Virginia occupies a particular position in the Mid-Atlantic hospitality landscape — a AAA Four Diamond country resort affiliated with the University of Virginia, set against the Blue Ridge Mountains, with an Old Mill Room dining room that had earned 16 consecutive Four Diamond awards, an intimate spa, championship golf, and meeting facilities capable of hosting groups that demand both professional-grade conference infrastructure and the kind of unhurried elegance that only a genuine country inn provides. The positioning line said it plainly: a country resort at the University of Virginia. The creative challenge was to make each of the inn’s distinct offerings feel like the primary reason to go — without any of them contradicting the others.

Serving as creative director, account executive, and photography director as a contractor through The Meridian Group, I developed and produced a segmented print advertising campaign system built around a single unifying campaign line: “It’s at the heart of our charming inn.” The line did precisely what a good campaign line should — it answered every question the campaign asked while reinforcing the inn’s essential character with each repetition. Each ad led with a direct question addressed to a specific audience motivation, then answered it with the same quiet confidence.

For the leisure escape market: “Looking for a Captivating Blue Ridge Resort Escape?” For the meetings market: “Looking for an Unrivaled Resort Meeting Destination?” For the dining market: “Looking for an Epicurean Destination?” — with the Old Mill Room’s 16 consecutive AAA Four Diamond Awards doing the persuasion work in the body copy. For the spa market: “Looking for Your Own Personal Oasis?” — accompanied by a $99 Lavender Salt Body Scrub promotional piece that made the spa feel accessible as well as luxurious. Rate promotional executions — Summer Midweek Rates from $139, Summer Sunday Brunch at $49 — completed the system, giving the campaign direct response capability alongside the brand advertising.

Photography direction was conducted on location at the resort — a more extensive production than the parallel Kingsmill Resort engagement, involving both property photography and model setups across the guest rooms, the Old Mill Room dining room, the spa treatment areas, the fireside sitting areas, and the grounds. Each setup was directed to carry the warmth, intimacy, and unhurried quality that the campaign line promised. The photography didn’t illustrate the ads. It was the ads.

Creative Direction, Photography Direction, Account Executive, Print Advertising, Rate Promotional Advertising, Segmented Market Campaigns, Print Production Management

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Kingsmill Resort — Advertising Campaigns, Photography Direction

Kingsmill Resort advertising campaign folio showing corporate meetings print ads, defense industry We Can Keep a Secret campaign, Fortune 500 advertising, Travel Channel Top Ten family resort ad, and direct mail pieces — creative direction and photography direction by Keith Bloom

Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Virginia — an Anheuser-Busch resort property on the James River — is one of the Mid-Atlantic region’s premier conference and leisure destinations: 16 dedicated meeting rooms certified by the International Association of Conference Centers, three championship golf courses, a European-style spa, award-winning culinary staff, and within easy reach of Busch Gardens, Water Country USA, and Colonial Williamsburg. Marketing a property with that range of offerings to audiences as different as Fortune 500 meeting planners, defense industry procurement officers, and family vacation travelers requires not one campaign but several — each speaking with precision to a distinctly different set of motivations.

Serving as creative director and account executive for the Kingsmill account as a contractor through The Meridian Group, I developed and produced a segmented print advertising campaign system that addressed each audience on its own terms while maintaining the visual coherence and brand authority of the Kingsmill identity.

For the corporate meetings market, the campaign led with the pressure and consequence that meeting planners carry: “Medical Breakthroughs Don’t Happen Overnight. But Your Next Meeting Can.” and “How Some Fortune 500 Companies Got to Be So Fortunate.” — direct, confident lines that spoke to the decision-maker’s professional responsibility rather than the resort’s amenities. The amenities were listed in the body copy. The headline earned the read.

The defense and government market campaign was perhaps the most conceptually precise piece in the collection. Defense-related groups meeting at a resort need discretion as much as they need conference facilities — and “We Can Keep a Secret” acknowledged that need directly, with a supporting piece listing defense industry clients whose identities were, of course, redacted. It’s a campaign that works precisely because it demonstrates the thing it promises.

For the family leisure market, the campaign leveraged Kingsmill’s Travel Channel Top Ten Family Resort recognition — “You’re Number One at this Travel Channel Top Ten Family Resort” — turning a third-party credential into a consumer-facing headline that did the persuasion work efficiently and credibly.

Photography direction for both the meetings and accommodations campaigns was my responsibility, conducted on location at the resort. The conference room imagery, the resort property photography, and the accommodations visuals were all directed to serve the specific campaign they appeared in — the meetings photography communicating professional-grade facility quality, the leisure photography communicating the warmth and ease of a family destination.

Creative Direction, Account Executive, Photography Direction, Print Advertising, Direct Mail, Campaign Strategy, Segmented Market Campaigns, Print Production Management