The world of glamorous photo shoots and exotic locations may seem a world away from Leyland town centre at times, particularly after this damp, seemingly never starting summer.
However, it’s this summer that has marked the arrival of Steven Livesey’s new business Blink Photo to the Kings Court development opposite the Commercial Transport Museum in the town centre.
More used to the sunny shores of Mediterranean islands for his fashion & footwear shoots, Steven chose Leyland to set up his new ambitious venture due to the ease of transport networks and general ease of doing business.
Blink are in the process of converting a divided old mill unit into a state of the art commercial photographic studio. They’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that help was at hand on their doorstep with several local businesses partnering them in creating a working environment from an empty shell.
The major works were carried out by local Leyland company NSI Projects, who specialise in fitting out of empty building shells with
mezzanine floors, partitioning, ceilings and
shelving systems. Their brief was to create studios, offices and storage areas on top of a mezzanine floor that effectively increased the productive footprint of the building by approximately 20%.
Unfortunately the need for the fit-out coincided with a major foreign assignment that required Steven and his team to relocate to the Balearics for three weeks, tantamount to having the builders in whilst you go on your annual holidays – not without its worry!
Said Steven “the shoot was actually less glamorous than it might have looked, with the client going for a more edgy feel - meaning I was lying in the gutters of Palma, Majorca at all times of day and night trying to get the right shots! Meanwhile, I had a major fit-out going on hundreds of miles away that I couldn’t directly supervise”
“Thankfully, due to the time put in pre-planning with the team at NSI, and their desire to keep me fully informed by e-mail and mobile at every step of the project, I came back to a unit transformed in a very short timescale from an empty unit to one being well on the way to the working space I need. We’re really positive about growing our business from our new Leyland base”.
