Paul Smith
Elevating Visual Content for a Premium Brand
About Paul Smith
Paul Smith is a British designer brand known for blending traditional craftsmanship with unexpected details. As an early e-commerce adopter, the brand has prioritized high-quality visual content to reflect its design philosophy.
With growing B2C and B2B demands, Paul Smith needed a way to scale content production efficiently while maintaining its signature quality.
Introduction
To bridge the gap between in-store and online experiences, Paul Smith continually refines its visual content strategy. The goal is to create an immersive, curated digital experience that mirrors the brand’s physical stores—bringing craftsmanship and storytelling to life through imagery. As demand for product visuals increased, the team sought a solution to produce more high-quality content, faster.
The Challenge
Paul Smith’s in-house studio had always handled retouching, ensuring imagery met brand standards. However, the need for higher studio output and faster turnaround times made the traditional workflow unsustainable.
“We were early adopters of e-commerce; our site turned 20 last year, and we’ve always done everything in-house. But with increasing demand, we needed to rethink our setup. More products, more selection, more imagery, our traditional workflow wasn’t scalable. That’s when we found Bright River.”
Hannah Bennett, Head of Digital at Paul Smith
“More products, more selection, more imagery, our traditional workflow wasn’t scalable. That’s when we found Bright River.“
The Solution
Paul Smith adopted a hybrid approach, combining internal resources with Bright River’s post-production expertise to scale retouching efficiently. This allowed the in-house team to focus on creative and strategic priorities, rather than being bottlenecked by high-volume production demands.
The transition was seamless. “Onboarding was easier than we thought. The communication was great, and honestly, sometimes you go through sales, and then reality dips. But that didn’t happen here. The team was attentive, and feedback loops were tight. It just works.”
A significant part of the solution was ensuring high-quality, consistent visuals across e-commerce, marketing, and B2B wholesale channels. Currently, only 40% of the B2B collection is physically sampled, but Paul Smith’s goal is to shoot and edit 100% of the collection to provide a fully cohesive visual experience. With Bright River handling post-production at scale, the team is confident this goal can be achieved efficiently without compromising quality.
%
Turnaround time reduced by up to 85%
Images ready in 24 hours
Results and benefits
- Turnaround time reduced by up to 85% – Previously, model shoot retouching could take up to two weeks. Now, images are ready in 24-48 hours, significantly improving go-live speed.
- Higher studio output – More images and greater variety without overloading the internal team.
- Scalability without compromise – The studio team now focuses on creative enhancements and automation instead of high-volume retouching.
- Stronger brand storytelling online – By refining the visual content workflow, Paul Smith ensures that the online experience mirrors the premium feel of its stores.
Conclusion
For a premium brand like Paul Smith, every image tells a story. By refining its post-production workflow with Bright River, the brand has built a faster, scalable, and high-quality visual content process that keeps pace with both e-commerce and B2B demands—without compromising on craftsmanship or storytelling.
Hannah Bennett
Head Of Digital, Paul Smith
About Paul Smith
Paul Smith is a British designer brand known for blending traditional craftsmanship with unexpected details. As an early e-commerce adopter, the brand has prioritized high-quality visual content to reflect its design philosophy.
With growing B2C and B2B demands, Paul Smith needed a way to scale content production efficiently while maintaining its signature quality.
Introduction
To bridge the gap between in-store and online experiences, Paul Smith continually refines its visual content strategy. The goal is to create an immersive, curated digital experience that mirrors the brand’s physical stores—bringing craftsmanship and storytelling to life through imagery. As demand for product visuals increased, the team sought a solution to produce more high-quality content, faster.
The Challenge
Paul Smith’s in-house studio had always handled retouching, ensuring imagery met brand standards. However, the need for higher studio output and faster turnaround times made the traditional workflow unsustainable.
Hannah Bennett, Head of Digital at Paul Smith:
“We were early adopters of e-commerce; our site turned 20 last year, and we’ve always done everything in-house. But with increasing demand, we needed to rethink our setup. More products, more selection, more imagery, our traditional workflow wasn’t scalable. That’s when we found Bright River.”
“More products, more selection, more imagery, our traditional workflow wasn’t scalable. That’s when we found Bright River.“
The Solution
Paul Smith adopted a hybrid approach, combining internal resources with Bright River’s post-production expertise to scale retouching efficiently. This allowed the in-house team to focus on creative and strategic priorities, rather than being bottlenecked by high-volume production demands.
The transition was seamless. “Onboarding was easier than we thought. The communication was great, and honestly, sometimes you go through sales, and then reality dips. But that didn’t happen here. The team was attentive, and feedback loops were tight. It just works.”
A significant part of the solution was ensuring high-quality, consistent visuals across e-commerce, marketing, and B2B wholesale channels. Currently, only 40% of the B2B collection is physically sampled, but Paul Smith’s goal is to shoot and edit 100% of the collection to provide a fully cohesive visual experience. With Bright River handling post-production at scale, the team is confident this goal can be achieved efficiently without compromising quality.
Results and Benefits
- Turnaround time reduced by up to 85% – Previously, model shoot retouching could take up to two weeks. Now, images are ready in 24-48 hours, significantly improving go-live speed.
- Higher studio output – More images and greater variety without overloading the internal team.
- Scalability without compromise – The studio team now focuses on creative enhancements and automation instead of high-volume retouching.
- Stronger brand storytelling online – By refining the visual content workflow, Paul Smith ensures that the online experience mirrors the premium feel of its stores.
%
Turnaround time reduced by up to 85%
Images ready in 24 hours
“We’ve always been dubious of outsourcing retouching in terms of quality. And I think we were all kind of shook when we saw the quality. We were like, this is just as good, if not better. Oh, and I can get it in 24 hours.“
Conclusion
For a premium brand like Paul Smith, every image tells a story. By refining its post-production workflow with Bright River, the brand has built a faster, scalable, and high-quality visual content process that keeps pace with both e-commerce and B2B demands—without compromising on craftsmanship or storytelling.
Jeroen Gerretsen
Visual Content (3D, Image, Video) Production & Optimisation Expert
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