Vessel Health is a company on a mission to help people feel, perform, and live better with the help of their wellness trackers. Their subscription product allows you to regularly test your nutrition levels at home, view health reports on your phone, get a customized wellness plan, and track your progress along the way. After consulting Vessel through the initial rebrand process in collaboration with the creative agency Ammunition, they still needed creative direction for their brand photography before it was ready to launch.

We chose to do a series of body portraits that would help represent specific health goals in the Vessel app (like fitness, focus, and sleep) and be versatile enough to leverage across multiple channels: their website, advertising, social media, and most all other brand placements. They wanted a timeless and minimal look that was aspirational yet also approachable.

To embody this feel, we knew the cast would need to be relatable to and representative of their target audience. We were very deliberate with casting, hiring diverse folks who look like people our audience could see themselves being friends with: tattoos, facial hair, smile lines, and all. Our hair and makeup went in a similar direction — it was natural and organic, but still polished and clean. When it came to lighting, we wanted the photography to pick up on the natural highlights and shadows of the body while also conveying vibrance and energy.

As the photoshoot was nude, we took extra steps to ensure that it felt tasteful. Although it initially added a challenge to our poses and compositions, these constraints ultimately provided us with some creative shots we couldn't have captured otherwise.

Our background transitioned among three brand colors that lent themselves well to overlaid copy and graphs, which we knew would figure heavily in the design of the app and website.

The final images we chose were expressive, optimistic, and candid. We caught moments that were genuine and natural — a must for a company that offered such a personal service.

Role: Art Direction

Credits:
Photographer - Carmen Chan
Makeup - Nova Kaplan
Hair - Jess Switzer
Production - Mariano De La Torre and Ben Ganz
Photo Assist - Gabe Nivera
DIT - Victor Rodriguez