(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, 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
Economics degree, four years in finance, then bartending in San Francisco and New York before Rémy Cointreau brought him in to help build Collectif 1806. His cocktail photos, shot on a phone, ended up on the brand's own feeds. Two black belts. Every frame the lab produces passes through his camera or his hands.
Kyle studied economics at Sacramento State and spent four years as a Certified Financial Planner before walking away from it to tend bar, first in San Francisco at Savoy Tivoli, Rye and 15 Romolo, then in New York at Amor y Amargo, Empellón and Crown. A referral from Steve Schneider of Employees Only brought him to Rémy Cointreau, where he helped build Collectif 1806, the house's bartender ambassador program. He pushed every ambassador to post their drinks and started shooting his own on a phone and a pocket Sony. Before long the brand's agencies were asking to use his photos on the brand's own accounts. On his way out, he pitched 1806 Magazine to his boss, Richard Lambert, then shot and designed both volumes. That was the start of Ford Media Lab. Today he shoots every Hasselblad plate, runs every composite and grade, and sets the look of the lab itself. He's also the one pushing the lab forward: he tests new tools the week they ship, out of curiosity as much as need, and keeps the ones that make the work faster, sharper or newly possible. Much of how the lab works today started as one of his experiments. The finance years taught him to read a brand, a market and a P&L at the same time. The martial arts came first: his first job was teaching karate at Kovars in Sacramento, and he holds black belts in Kenpo and Tae Kwon Do, the second tested under Grand Master Jhoon Rhee, with Aikido and Krav Maga along the way.
Rachel Ford
managing_partner // executive_producer
Behind the bar at Rickhouse and Lani Kai, then four years on the road as Tanqueray's national brand ambassador, with one memorable turn on Bar Rescue. She wrote both volumes of 1806 Magazine, a Spirited Awards finalist. Today she runs the business, the clients and the set. For fun, she paints by number.
Rachel met Kyle at Kovars Karate in Sacramento, where she worked the front desk and was promoted to yellow belt for appearances, despite never really training. She has never fully explained what she was doing there. She studied business at Sacramento State and worked in real estate until she and Kyle quit their jobs, moved to San Francisco and got behind the bar, hers at Cigar Bar and Rickhouse. In New York she worked under Julie Reiner at Lani Kai and Monkey Bar, and alongside Kyle at Amor y Amargo and Empellón. One night she met Tanqueray's brand manager, and that turned into four years as the brand's national ambassador for Diageo. She was on the road across the country leading Tanqueray Green Room events for the trade and for consumers, teaching all things gin and cocktails, and serving as the face of the brand, down to an appearance on Bar Rescue. She wrote every word of 1806 Magazine, a Spirited Awards finalist for Best Cocktail and Spirits Publication in 2018 and a top-ten pick again in 2019. At the lab she runs the business, the clients and the set: proposals, pre-production, the first concept sketches, producing on set and every status call after. She also manages Bartender at Large and Mover & Shaker Co., which puts the lab in rooms it wouldn't otherwise reach. Off the clock she paints by number, which tells you most of what you need to know: creative, inside a very well-defined box.
(03 / the origin)
Where it started.
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 opened our own studio.
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, to a studio built for the way we work now. 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.
suite 402, pencil factory, greenpoint // wall: katie merz
suite 501, pencil factory // remote shoot, 2021
first florida studio, clearwater // decal: baron von fancy
miami laboratory, hasselblad // present tense
(05 / the studio)
How the work gets made.
01
brief
Every job starts with the commercial question it has to answer, written down before a camera comes out.
02
capture
For client work, the product is photographed for real on a Hasselblad in our studio. The bottle you see is your bottle.
03
build
The world around it is made with AI tools, position-matched to the capture so the light agrees.
04
finish
Every frame is composited and graded by hand. This is where most of the hours go.
05
carry
For retainer clients we run the channels too, so the brand that leaves the studio is the one that shows up in the feed.
(06 / the record)
Diageo
Pernod Ricard
Suntory Global Spirits
Rémy Cointreau
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. Somewhere between shifts in San Francisco, we studied for the Court of Master Sommeliers together and both passed Level 1.
// 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. In 2020, Adweek named Ford Media Lab #70 on its list of the 100 fastest-growing agencies in the world.
// 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
The Miami studio opens in Wynwood. Studio capture and AI production move into one room.