Case Studies

Cambridge University Press

Cambridge first came to us for a budget to provide pictures for an interactive digital project.
The normal licensing rates were unaffordable for a product that was to be given away.

Low budget CD

Zooid provided Cambridge with various options, one of which was to permit Zooid to reinterpret the brief to allow simpler research and deliver cheaper pictures without damaging the content range, or quality, or diminishing the quantity of pictures required.

• budget options
• consultation & re-working the project specification
• presentation of money-saving options
• maintained content range, quality and quantity
• enabled client to maintain standards whilst cutting costs
  

Zooid delivered on quantity, quality and budget, as desired - and won new friends in Cambridge!

Oxford University Press (Educational Division)

When the UK government contracted OUP to publish textbooks for the entire school science curriculum, Zooid had already been a pro-active OUP partner for several years.

Complex project management, cross-media

OUP elected to work exclusively with Zooid due to our highly sophisticated project and asset management system that was able to ensure the smooth workflow of 20,000 (yes, twenty thousand) picture assets across dozens of modules in several different media.

• multi-module, multi-media project management
• research and management of 20,000 assets through production
• shooting specific subjects (experiments etc.) whenever necessary
• standard rates regardless of supplier / commission
• long-term team membership
• client partnering
• advice on pilot and publishing programme to reduce licensing fees
• automate workflow of asset re-use in different format and filenames for differing modules and media

In addition, the specificity of author requirements meant that many of the pictures (experiments etc.) were commissioned by Zooid and simply slotted into the workflow without a hiccup.

Lion Publishing

Lion were finding licensing costs prohibitive and had no in-house picture expertise.

They wanted a picture department without the overhead. They wanted the cost guarantees without the contractual commitments. And they wanted expert research in their specialist publishing sector.

On-Demand picture department

In the years that have followed our first meeting, Zooid have acted as consultants, researchers and suppliers, enabling Lion to publish titles that were previously uneconomic. Our long-term partnership with Lion has provided them with all the benefits of an in-house department.

• seamless integration with Lion's practice
• partnership advice on workflow, asset management, copyright, licensing options
• advice on exploitation of new technologies
• 56 projects completed
• 30,000 assets researched
• 3,500 assets supplied
• 3,000 assets licensed
• long-term project management, archiving and re-licensing

Oxford University Press (ELT Division)

Oxford University Press needed to provide the authors, editors and designers of one of their flagship ELT titles with all of the picture options for over 250 subjects - within ten days.

Deadline challenge

Zooid had 5 researchers burning the candle at both ends and presented a four-day selection meeting with over 5000 picture options, fully-organised, online and on time.

The clients were astonished at the achievement.

Zooid managed to complete this project on time, on budget, on target. This is how we did it:

• 5 researchers full time
• night and weekend working
• 5000 pictures options
• 9 days to delivery
• 4-day selection meeting

Harvard University Press

As the first American president of African American descent occupies his historic term in office, Harvard University Press and the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute present what will become ten sumptuous books charting the The Image of the Black in Western Art.

This monumental publication offers expert commentary and a lavishly illustrated history of the representations of people of African descent ranging from the ancient images of Pharaohs created by unknown hands to the works of the great European to new creations by contemporary black artists. Including thousands of beautiful, moving, and often little-known images of black people, including queens and slaves, saints and soldiers, children and gods.

Monumental undertaking

Zooid Pictures is researching, commissioning, licensing and re-licensing all images (thousands) for this exceptional project, from hundreds of different suppliers -- libraries, museums, galleries, individual photographers all over the world. This titanic task required Zooid to establish a dedicated team with broad language skills, expertise in image-manipulation and the ability to liaise directly with authors, freelances and suppliers and to pool everything into a single simple online workflow.

Harvard University Press proposed Zooid for the task because "you guys are the only people in the world that could pull this together!" which led us happily into a superb relationship with the client, W.E.B. Du Bois Insitute, Harvard, and their remarkable archive.

Great tales of research range from rediscovering (in Poland) an object thought destroyed during WW2 (in Germany) to opening doors to hidden collections and commissioning photography of little-seen art around the world.

• 2000 unique and rare images
• several hundred specialist sources
• commissioned photography
• online workflow - across continents
• once-in-a-lifetime project