Ford Media Lab by Katie Merz
We're Ford Media Lab (FML, for the cool kids ), a creative studio brewing up eye-catching visuals in sunny Clearwater, Florida. Founded in Brooklyn by Rachel the art director and Kyle the photographer (dream team, alert!), we started by shaking up social media with drool-worthy cocktail pics. Soon, brand teams were thirsty for more, and voila! FML was born.
Fast forward to present day, and we're one of Adweek’s 100 Fastest Growing agencies, known for our in-house photography, video, and social media magic. We moved to Tampa Bay in 2023 to fuel our big ideas (and house all those epic props!).
Our full-service crew is your one-stop shop for product photography, AI composites, stop-motion animation, short-form video, and social media strategy. We design, build, and style sets, and then shoot and retouch the magic ourselves, whether in our Clearwater studio or on location.
Basically, we're your visual storytellers, ready to make your brand shine brighter than a disco ball.
Rachel Ford, Managing Director
Kyle Ford, Director of Photography & Retouching
We shoot exclusively with the Hasselblad X System, a medium format camera with unrivaled color depth and dynamic range, lens optics designed for beautiful details, and high resolution output. Top quality carries through to our lighting, where we use Profoto strobes and modifiers for their legendary accuracy, versatility, portability, and reliability. Video is captured using a Sony FX3 Cinema Line camera for buttery 4k at up to 120fps. All this means is that your visuals are being captured with the best photographic technology available.
Words we live by:
Do it better.
Doing our work right is the base-line of acceptability. We aim to exceed expectations, actively planning to set a new standard on every project, every single time.
Disrupt the status quo.
Things really get fun when new thinking is applied to age old marketing problems. We like to challenge our team to think outside the box and shake things up.
Know why.
How can you achieve success without a purpose? Our creative process starts with and is anchored to our clients’ and their target customers’ objectives.
Good vibes only.
Work is stressful enough without bad attitudes. We like to start the day with a deep breath and a wisp of Palo Santo in the air. Smiles go miles in bringing our projects to life.
Play every day.
We take ourselves seriously, but not too seriously. As a creative studio, it’s important to nourish that inner creative spark with spontaneous moments of fun every day.
Win - win -win.
We seek to wrap every project with the coveted win-win-win. That’s when our clients, their customers, and our team all benefit from our collaborative process.