About Formica

Formica Group is a leading provider of laminate surfacing for commercial and residential sectors. They’re the world’s largest manufacturer of High Pressure Laminate, and the Formica name is a global heritage brand.

Formica needed CGI to launch their Originals range of worktops to the residential British market. They approached us, looking for realistic renders with precise styling and composition.

The Brief

Formica's brief included seven CGI room sets that would each show a different product. The design of the room sets span across three British styles. These included mid-century modern, a more traditional modern, and a traditional style.

The shot list included wide shots of the full room to inspire customers, as well as cameo shots that would show the worktops in greater detail. We used a combination of dramatic and soft lighting to highlight textures in images.

Styling The Kitchens

It was critical to achieve the correct styling across all the images as we were aiming them towards a specific target market. From initial mood boards we narrowed down the styling options.

The beautiful worktops each had a unique look which helped to provide character to the room sets. Therefore, the role of the styling was to complement the products whilst appealing to customers by matching their tastes and providing inspiration.

We used digital props that matched both the style of the work surfaces and the looks that were being achieved – mid-century modern, traditional modern, and traditional. Each CGI render was designed to be aspirational to the UK market.

CGI

Our lead CGI artist, Steve looked after this project. We started by outlining the styles of the sets by using AI to generate concepts. These were only to be used in the planning stages to help us quickly determine the structure of the sets along with the basic design.

Once approved, we could start to build the renders using the products. We received physical samples from Formica to model the worktops and ensure that our images were true to the products.

We hit all aspects of the brief, which included the dramatic and soft lighting that highlighted the textures of the work surfaces. The close-up shots revealed the detail of the various worktops, each demonstrating their unique qualities. This included the design of the surface, textures, and profile of the worktop edges.

The shots were lit with the commercial goal in mind, to showcase the worktops, whilst adding interest and realism to each image. The digital lighting was altered to fit each product, with their colours and styles differing significantly. The products varied from the dramatic charcoal marble inspired Sahara Noir, to the natural rustic country style of Tawny Oak.

Once the initial renders had been completed, we worked with Formica's compliance and marketing teams to ensure the images were approved by all departments in the business before final sign off.