Unicorn & Narwhal Bar
ABOUT THE PROJECT
This was a full Seattle bar photography project for Capitol Hill's beloved carnival-themed bar Unicorn & Narwhal. This all-inclusive project had everything from food and drink menu to environment to lifestyle photography. Thanks to excellent coordination with the bartenders and kitchen staff, it was able to take place over the course of just one full day!
There are many nooks, crannies and quirks that make Unicorn & Narwhal special from their taxidermy to their famous, bejeweled ATM. The client wanted me to capture a little bit of everything for use on the web, in social media and in the press.
About Unicorn & Narwhal
Unicorn & Narwhal are two carnival themed bars located on Capitol Hill, Seattle. Each packs its own vibe into one location offering whimsical food & drink options. Also featuring an arcade, claw machine, & photo booth. Weekly events include Mimosas Cabaret, Gayme Night, live shows, karaoke, trivia and more.
INSIDE THE PROJECT
A look inside how the project was styled and photographed
THE ENVIRONMENT
It's like real estate photography, but not really. I wanted to get ultra-wide photographs of the environment in order to make it look spacious and share the atmosphere all in one fell swoop. In a world where Instagram is king, atmosphere is such an integral part of why people tend to visit new places. Showing you have an attractive space through stunning imagery is quite a convincing reason for someone to visit themselves.
THE COCKTAIL MENU
I just love the drink menu at Unicorn. They offer this wide variety of colorful cocktails with goofy carnival names (e.g. "Unicorn Jizz). Since this is a bar after all, and the vessels and garnishes themselves are pretty standard, I wanted to make sure I put emphasis on the environment in each frame. And for the sake of social media use, I switched it up on the backgrounds, angles and lighting so the client had a bit of of variety to choose from.
THE FOOD MENU
Seriously. The entire food menu. Food styling and photography has been a passion of mine for about a decade. It has been such a blast to finally bring this passion into my business model. Like their cocktails, the Unicorn food menu has a ton of crazy names. Having the opportunity to put a face to the name on every single menu item was a series of endless surprises. I've always wondered what "Unicorn Balls" looked like...
DETAILS
There are so many nooks, quirks and crannies that make Unicorn and Narwhal both so special. In our initial consultation, I suggested the client give me a list of all their favorite parts of the bar that they wanted photographed. This makes for great social media material because each one has its own, individual story to tell.
LIFESTYLE
Sharing images of an empty bar on social media isn't the most enticing to your followers. So what better way to exhibit how truly lively it gets is than to bring some lifestyle photography into the mix? Often times with bars and restaurants, I will recommend the client asks employees or friend’s of the business to model. This will ultimately cut time and costs that would otherwise go toward casting calls and paying out models. For reference, a professional model via an agency can cost up to $400/hr. I tend to pay out non-professional models roughly $50/hr. On the bright side, lifestyle shoots for restaurants and bars like Unicorn generally only require roughly 1-2 hours of a model's time.
