Using his innate creative talents, Canada’s Zach Hertzman allows brands to realize their identities. With years of experience in photography, video, design, and strategy, he takes ideas on paper and turns them into visual masterpieces. As a Creative Director, he oversees the entirety of a creative process from ideation to inception, and with his immense capabilities, individuals and companies seek out his counsel. Now, with his own company, Sundays, he uses his knowledge and expertise to help others live their dreams, and he has never been happier.
“I always saw a large need in the professional world for capable people who can bridge the gap between art and commerce - and that’s where a solid Creative Director comes in. I always admired the creative process and wanted to find a space where I could be part of it. It also just felt like a natural extension of my skills and thought process so choosing that path made sense to me. When we’re working on great projects, the work hardly feels like work at all, but rather what I want to be doing. It’s been a long and tough road to carve out a place in a very saturated creative market, but the work has always been rewarding and worth it,” said Hertzman.
Sundays shoots video and photography for a variety of different clients, helping create a brand identity and generate promotional material. They are an award-winning company, having won several industry awards for their work on the “Real Scary” campaign for the WWF (The World Wildlife Fund) which won four ADCC Gold Awards, two ADCC Silver Awards, and an ADCC Merit Award. They also won an Applied Arts Award and a PDN Award. None of this could have been possible without Hertzman’s artistic eye.
Sundays has worked on many projects since forming in June of last year, shooting the likes of Influencer Casey Neistat, and generating large-scale campaigns for Roots, Deloitte and Knix. They also have upcoming shoots for Palm Bay and Vice. One of Hertzman’s most memorable projects with his company however, came when shooting Canadian music icon Little Scream, where he conceptualized and shot photographs of the musician for her 2017 press and promotion, as well as currently unreleased images that she will be using as she releases new music throughout this year. The shots are the basis for her current website, her Spotify artist page, and have been used in articles written about her on outlets like the CBC. Hertzman’s work helped establish Little Scream’s updated look and has helped with exposure and awareness of her music.
“It was really wonderful to shoot with Zach. He thought through the full creative process, working to think of ideas for the photographs that would tie into and compliment my music. On the shoot days, he made me feel very comfortable and was able to bring out the expression we were going for. The shots were all very imaginative and original, and really blew me away when I saw them. He really has a unique vision and thinks outside the box. He is also very professional on set, thinking through all the variables to achieve the perfect shot,” said Laurel Sprengelmeyer, the singer of Little Scream. “Zach has a really unique creative eye that enables him to take photos like no one else. He’s extremely dedicated and put a huge amount of time and effort into the shoot, going way beyond what was expected. He has a singular vision unlike many other creatives I’ve worked with in the past, and really took the shoot to the next level. His use of color and composition really helped to elevate the photography. The whole series of photographs was cohesive and consistent, and he really created a series of photos that compliments my music.”
Both Hertzman and his business partner Reuven Ashtar were big fans of Little Scream before beginning to work with her. When they heard she was working on new music, they began a conversation with her to brainstorm on locations, ideas, looks and themes. Little Scream’s music and Sunday’s visuals went hand in hand, so the collaboration was a perfect fit for everyone.
“When you are working with a subject who inspires you, it helps drive the creativity of a project as a whole and leads to new areas of expression you couldn’t necessarily have achieved otherwise,” Hertzman described.
After Little Scream gave Hertzman the majority of creative control over the work, the Creative Director had a lot of freedom to create the types of visuals he wanted. They decided to shoot in a small town nestled between a beautiful lake and rolling mountainous hills with dense forest. They stayed in a beautiful lakeside cabin and everyone made sure to take in the sense of the area before shooting there. Hertzman believes having a solid connection to the setting enhanced the overall experienced and added a new level of inspiration to the imagery. With each new idea, Hertzman made sure to keep Sprengelmeyer heavily involved, as they wanted her to have a strong connection with the images, allowing them to truly connect with the music she was creating. In this way, her sound and visuals have an overall consistency she couldn’t necessarily achieve otherwise.
“The best part about working on this shoot was getting to work with an artist who I greatly admire and getting to do it in one of the most inspiring locations and places one could ask for. The combination of being inspired by the location as well as the subject really created a perfect storm of creativity and the results really speak for themselves,” said Hertzman. “It feels really great to know that the work I’ve made not only just works creatively, but also has a real purpose. It’s so cool to see the images I've made come out and have a life of their own beyond my intentions, and to grow organically once they are released.”