(01 / about)
Ten years of manufacturing fascination.
Ford Media Lab opened in September 2016. The cameras came from the first job, a magazine we made for Rémy Cointreau’s Collectif 1806, paid for by work we had already won. Ten years later it is a two-person studio in Miami with a contractor bench, working for the houses we used to work inside.
(02 / the founders)
Kyle Ford
creative_director // director_of_photography
Eighteen years in spirits. Bars in San Francisco and New York, Collectif 1806 at Rémy Cointreau, then the camera. Every AI frame, every composite, and every Hasselblad plate runs through his hands.
Title: Creative Director Core Protocol: Visionary Execution & Technical Experimentation Sector Background: Former Spirits Expert for Rémy Cointreau, with five years inside the trade before founding the lab. A self-taught photographer who built the lab's technical standard from the first camera onward, Kyle directs every capture and every computational expansion, testing new production methods the same week they exist. He decides fast, shoots faster, and holds the work to a bar most agencies would call unreasonable. Partners feel it as range: one creative director accountable from concept through final pixel.
Rachel Ford
managing_partner // executive_producer
Tanqueray and Diageo before the studio, co-author of 1806 Magazine. She originates the concepts, writes the treatments, and produces every job from brief to delivery.
Title: Managing Partner Core Protocol: Strategic Systems & Operational Management Sector Background: Former National Brand Ambassador for Tanqueray, with five years of internal trade marketing leadership built on a foundational career in mixology. Author of 1806 Magazine, Volumes 1 and 2. Rachel runs the lab the way she ran a national brand program: definitive roadmaps, written scopes, and client systems that don’t slip. She leads editorial and deck production, owns the operational standard, and holds every creative expansion accountable to commercial logic. Partners feel it as a simple fact: nothing leaves the lab off-brief, off-brand, or late.
(03 / the origin)
[laboratory_origin]
The story starts behind the bar. Or just before it: two corporate careers traded for a one-way move to San Francisco and the craft cocktail world. Three years behind the stick across San Francisco and New York followed, then five inside the brand houses themselves, leading trade programs for Diageo and Rémy Cointreau. Those years meant training bartenders, building advocacy programs, and sitting in the rooms where global budgets met agency decks. That seat came with a view most agencies never get: we were the client. We approved the estimates, sat through the markups, the fragmented vendor chains, and the slow erosion of strategic intent that legacy agency models call process. In 2016, we built the remedy.
Ford Media Lab opened in a Brooklyn studio and spent its first seven years earning a reputation for high-fidelity content and strategic intelligence. Those years produced work for global portfolios and client relationships that still follow us from brand to brand. They also produced 1806 Magazine, an independent print publication nominated for a Spirited Award. In 2023 the engine moved south, first to a Gulf Coast laboratory in Clearwater, then to Miami in 2025: a vertical facility built to house the Studio-to-Server pipeline and the computational production it demands. We kept the Brooklyn hustle and the New York ties. We own the entire production loop, which means one point of accountability and a vision that arrives at delivery exactly as it left intake.
archive // ford mixology lab era, 2011
(04 / the rooms)
Four rooms in ten years.
our first brooklyn studio // artist: katie merz
second brooklyn studio // remote shoot, 2021
first florida studio, clearwater // decal: baron von fancy
miami laboratory, hasselblad // present tense
(05 / the studio)
The Visual Intelligence Methodology
01
tactical_intelligence
Every partnership begins with deep-industry strategy and data-driven positioning to ensure the creative direction has a definitive commercial objective.
02
high_fidelity_capture
All visual work begins in our physical Miami studio, using real-world photography to provide the “human witness” and tactical precision that purely synthetic studios lack.
03
recursive_production
We utilize advanced digital pipelines to expand on studio-born assets, building custom environments and motion content that scale infinitely across all brand platforms.
04
streamlined_velocity
Our Studio-to-Server model eliminates the friction of legacy agencies, delivering AOR-quality work with the resourcefulness and execution speed of a modern laboratory.
05
digital_deployment
We manage the “last mile” of the pipeline, ensuring strategic consistency from the first shutter click to final social engagement and community interaction.
(06 / the record)
Diageo
Rémy Cointreau
Pernod Ricard
Suntory Global Spirits
Proximo
Clients follow us across career moves. Rémy Cointreau to Cincoro to Roué. Tanqueray to Plymouth Gin to Wolves Whiskey. Ten years, the same people, expanding scopes.
(07 / the timeline)
Ten years, in order.
// industry_ascension
Mastering the trade. Craft cocktail years across San Francisco and New York, then five years of internal trade marketing leadership for Diageo and Rémy Cointreau. The lab already had its initials: FML began as Ford Mixology Lab, our cocktail consultancy, before media became the medium.
// brooklyn_innovation
Solving for friction. The lab opens in Brooklyn and spends seven years building a reputation for high-fidelity content and strategic intelligence, one studio, one painted wall, and one repurposed sound room at a time.
// gulf_coast_chapter
Heading south. The lab trades Brooklyn for Florida’s Gulf Coast: a Clearwater studio, a new door, and the production foundation the next engine would demand.
// miami_expansion
Upgrading the engine. The Miami laboratory opens: a vertical facility built to house the Studio-to-Server pipeline and the computational production behind it.