Background
These images were created for ‘Beware the Lion’ a global brand campaign from New Balance Football featuring Liverpool striker Sadio Mané. The "Beware The Lion' campaign line was established by ZAK Agency and I was tasked with turning this into a visual language. The campaign is built around the characteristics of Sadio himself, well known for being humble but with another side to him on the pitch. His numerous successes have not dulled his burning hunger to improve and achieve even more. I wanted to show the "lion" within him whilst avoiding any kind of physical metamorphosis.
The gold colouring of the lion's eye became the starting point but by keeping his eyes human and using just the colour a striking image began to emerge. I completely reworked the lighting of the base photography, darkening the image to accentuate the gold accents I had added to his eyes, his already existing trademark gold hair accent naturally tying in. This "gold accent" approach became the bedrock of the original concept visual. With the visual language signed off the project shifted from creative to production as I applied it to a suite of over 30 images, each requiring the same extensive retouching and grading as the original. The campaign was rolled out globally across social media and digital channels as well as in iconic OOH locations around the city of Liverpool.
