Long before the infamous grocery store chain known as Whole Foods invaded Fayetteville and Rogers, another establishment quietly but firmly took up residence in the area. Since 2014, Akin's Natural Foods has been serving our community with carefully curated grocery items, fresh, organic produce and the largest selection of vitamins and supplements in the area. But Akin's history is much older than 2014…

Novo Studio recently completed a video project highlighting the creative work of BUF Studio in Bentonville, Arkansas. The piece profiles several of BUF’s recent projects, emphasizing their design approach, materials, and craftsmanship. Shot on location, the video blends detailed product and process footage with local residents enjoying the spaces that BUF has helped create. The project demonstrates Novo Studio’s capacity for producing polished commercial video that communicates brand values, highlights product quality, and supports local creative businesses. Enjoy the show!

Last weekend was a crowning achievement for the University of Arkansas’s School of Art. What started out as an idea, turned into a rather large grant (the largest in the history of universities, save athletic programs). And along with that huge grant, came plenty of meetings, lots of plans, the reworking of those plans, even more meetings and the collective support of the faculty and students. And now, a major milestone has been achieved: The Grand Opening of the Windgate Studio + Design Center.

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Christmas is coming. But for the students at the University of Arkansas School of Art, Christmas will come BIGTIME in January 2023, when the Windgate Art + Design Studio officially opens its doors. For years, the University’s Art Program has been expanding and as a result, the University has found all sorts of nooks and crannies in which to house and educate their students.

The Windgate Art + Design Studio is anything but a nook or cranny. This brand new building is a full-on multi-use center for a majority of the art students to call home. We were tasked with creating a short video to highlight the brand new building.

Happy May Everyone.

This month is already proving to be an extremely busy one for us at the studio. And basically what that means, is that we’re really not in the studio that much except to charge batteries and switch out gear. However, our friends at Black Apple Hard Cider mentioned that they were going to be doing a special Star Wars themed cider release and they requested some promotional content to help advertise it.

Of course, we decided to do something quirky and fun. What originally began as a simple stop motion project turned into the writing of a short story, the addition of silly voiceovers and sound effects (courtesy of the aforementioned new audio recording gear in the previous blog post), and one big excuse to dig out the old childhood Star Wars toys from the attic.

During the production, we spilled absolutely zero cider, somewhat of a first for us. We did however break a cider glass. This however, was done on purpose and in a controlled environment (aka, plastic shopping bag). Little projects like this, while intimidating in the midst of a busy schedule, can prove to be some of the most rewarding and of course, the most humorous.

For more information on Black Apple’s May 4th Cider, visit their website, instagram or Facebook page.

And as always, May The 4th Be With You.

We recently had the opportunity to create a promotional video highlighting and celebrating the collaborative effort between longtime local Harris Baking Company and privately held supermarket chain, HEB Stores Inc. For awhile now, Harris has been tasked with producing Sweet Hawaiian products under HEB’s “Aloha” name. When HEB requested a video presentation to show at their annual meeting, Harris Baking turned to us and allowed us to create the presentation.

Unique to this project was the fact that…(click to read more)

Today on the blog: Recent video work (and not-so-recent photography work) for Englander Mattress Company. President and CEO Mark Kinsley recently hired us to create an introduction video for an Englander website redesign. In setting up the blog post, I realized that there were also a few photos from awhile back that we created for Englander.

So…Double Whammy Wednesday.

Thanks to the wonderful folks at HOWSE for letting us use their space to shoot the video project. And thanks to Mark’s dog, Jones for posing so majestically atop a super comfortable Englander Mattress for the photos.

Say hello to the Honeycomb Kitchen Shop (again). Awhile back, we featured them on our blog as our dear friends and business neighbors. But we recently had the opportunity to create some content for an out-of-state client who wanted to feature them on a broader stage. We spent a few hours creating video and photo content of their shop and also interviewed shop owners, Melissa Turpin and Dana Smith with the video cameras rolling. These two are passionate about what they do and they continue to find new and innovative ways to make good products and cooking knowledge readily available to everyone. This goes without saying that when you have a choice in purchasing things for your home, your kitchen and your culinary adventures, please remember to shop small and especially, to shop here.

It was an inevitable reality that we’d focus at least a few of these posts on our work in the cycling industry. Today, we’re reliving last summer’s Arkansas Enduro Series and hoping that this year’s series will still be able to happen, at least partially. In the meantime, keep up the 6 feet apart social distancing pedaling and shredding.

- Philip & Jared

The summer is heating up and it’s not just because of that dank Arkansas humidity. The Arkansas Enduro Series is in full swing and we were at the first race of the season, capturing content. First up on the blog is a short video recap of the race. Enjoy.

Happy Friday everyone!

It’s been a crazy busy week for both Jared and I as we’ve been on-location and apart most of the week for work. But we met up at the bike shop yesterday to pick up a few things and I got my first look at the new Bike Arkansas Magazine issue. Coincidentally, I also came across this awesome video clip that Jared shot while we were in the woods the day of the shoot so I thought I’d share both here on the blog. The weather’s supposed to be nice this weekend, get out and enjoy it!

Say hello to David & Sarah May, also known as The Purple Kite. David is a former touring Nashville session guitarist who is now...

Today, I'm excited to share another feature from Red Barn Studio Live Sessions. We recently filmed a live performance by Trees & Houses. What is especially unique about this live session is that...

Many photographers (myself included) have jumped on the Sam Hurd bandwagon by waving glass prisms in front of their lenses while creating images. And why not? It's unique, unexpected and given the right light, can produce some beautiful results. But on a recent video shoot, I discovered that you could create a similar effect by using a Nalgene Water Bottle.

Here are the details. 

Today on the blog: The latest Red Barn Studio Live Session featuring The Sons of Otis Malone. Scroll down to see some behind the scenes photos along with the final video. Happy Thursday everyone!

Say hello to another Red Barn Studio Live Session starring Paper Anthem. As always, it was a super evening creating with Murdog Creative, Sixth & Burnside & Red Barn Studio. Here's a few behind the scenes images along with the video. Enjoy!

The Crumbs have been featured on a blog a few times now and today, we are pleased to present another Red Barn Studio Live Sessions collaboration featuring them. Here's a few behind the scenes photos along with their live performance. As always, thanks to Murray Williams, Brian Fittin and Jason Miller for their valued friendship and collaborative genius. Enjoy. 

A few weeks back, The Crumbs were slated to play at a local event and they opted to have a few of their new songs recorded during the backstage rehearsal. Here's one of my favorites. Enjoy!

It's been a few weeks since we've had the opportunity to collaborate with Red Barn Studio Live Sessions. But recently, we were able to remedy that and hang out with the usual gang (Murray Williams, Brian Fittin, Michael Drager and Jason Miller). And as usual, we were all treated to an earful of awesomeness thanks to Stephen Neeper & The Wild Hearts. Here's a few behind-the-scenes images along with the final music video. Enjoy!

I once again had the opportunity to collaborate with local talent to create a music video for local artist and celebrity, Benjamin Del Shreve. Benjamin (who usually plays with a full band), brought technology (aka a BOSS RC-300 loop station for all you gear nerds out there), choosing to loop several instruments and vocal patterns on top of each other and then, sing along. The result was incredible and we're excited to share it with you. Once again, thanks to Jason Miller at Red Barn Studio for recording, Murray Williams of Murdog Creative for organizing, directing and producing, the video, to Bryan Fittin of 6th & Burnside for being an all-around great personality to spend the evening with and to Benjamin Del Shreve, for rocking our lenses and our faces off. Here's a few behind the scenes images along with the video. Enjoy!

** Note ** Red Barn Studio Live Sessions is a collaborative effort to promote new and existing local music talent. It is also an opportunity for creatives to have a "jam session" of their own and to contribute to a fun project. If you're a musician or group and you are completely awesome at what you do, let us know.