Super Funky Pigeon has won a national award, becoming one of Small Business Saturday’s SmallBiz100, for its vision for brand photography. Emily Moore talks to its founder, Adele Williams, about how it all came about…
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FROM teaching English in Japan to working with the Navy, RAF and Army during her time at BAE Systems subsidiary MDBA, there is no doubt that Adele Williams has enjoyed a varied career.
But when the former Jersey College for Girls student’s company was thrust into the national spotlight on Saturday, as one of the SmallBiz100 firms of 2022, it was not her engineering or teaching prowess which was recognised.
Indeed, having started out in engineering – ‘I believe I was the first student from JCG to study engineering at university’ – Adele’s path has taken her in an unexpected direction.
‘When I was choosing my degree course, my teachers wanted me to go into law or medicine but I had always been fascinated by robotics and engineering,’ she said. ‘I had always wanted to design and make things but, because I was quite academic, I was pushed into engineering, which I really enjoyed but there was a creative side to me which was desperate to get out.’
In the final year of her degree course, Adele had the opportunity to study an additional subject, which was unrelated to engineering.
‘I was so excited to have this opportunity and all sorts of ideas went through my mind but, when I looked at the timetables, my options were somewhat restricted so I ended up studying Japanese,’ she chuckled. ‘As it happened, I loved it and, at the end of the course, I took part in the Japan Exchange and Teaching programme, which gave me a chance to teach in the country.’
With the ‘cold winters’ driving her back to the UK in 2006, Adele started working in the defence sector as an engineer – but, despite loving elements of the role, she soon started feeling slightly ‘trapped’.
‘My career progressed very quickly mainly because I was good at communicating,’ she reflected. ‘As a result, I tended to spend a lot of time “translating” between the customers, which included the Ministry of Defence, and the technical team, which earned me the somewhat fancy title of head of command and control at MDBA.
‘I loved working with the RAF, Army and the Navy but the role was based almost entirely on communication and client relationships, with very little opportunity to design or create anything, so I felt somewhat trapped.’
As a result, when she fell pregnant with her first child, she knew that she would not be returning to MDBA after her maternity leave.
‘Although that was definite, I had no idea what my next step would be,’ she reflected, ‘but I did know that I didn’t really want another academic or management-level role.’
As it happened, the inspiration for her next step came when she took her son to a toddler-friendly concert near her home in Bristol.
‘These concerts took place every month in a gorgeous venue, with light streaming through the windows,’ she said. ‘As I watched all these toddlers following the guy who was playing the instruments, I thought: “This is fantastic. Why is no one photographing this?”’
Having enjoyed photography since she was a young child – ‘I’ve had an SLR ever since I was six’ – Adele was, nevertheless, somewhat shy about the prospect of sharing her pictures with anyone.
‘I’d never shared my favourite photos with other people so it was quite a big deal for me to contact the concert organiser and suggest taking photos of the event,’ she explained. ‘Luckily, she jumped at the idea and suggested taking photos of the audience members as well and seeing whether anyone wanted to buy them.
‘At that point, I had no ideas about setting up a business. I was just having fun and selling the prints at really low prices.’
However, from that innocuous start, requests for Adele’s photography services started flooding in.
‘Suddenly, people were asking me to do family shoots, weddings and even business photos,’ she said, ‘and so, in 2015, Super Funky Penguin was born, the name stemming from my wine-induced confidence that penguins would be easy to draw and that I would therefore be able to design my own logo.’
Despite slightly over-estimating her artistic abilities, Adele – who still comes to the Island every year to visit her mother, Ruth Mariette – continued with her business plans, with weddings and family shoots continuing to dominate her workload until lockdown hit in 2020 and ‘everything disappeared overnight’.
‘That was an awful time,’ she recalled. ‘My website was hacked, there were no bookings coming because you weren’t allowed to gather or see anyone and, in the same week that my website went down, someone opened a photography studio across the road from me.
‘I had a major wobble that week but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because not only did my fabulous web designer repair the website but the situation forced me to look around and see what else was out there.’
That ‘something else’ turned out to be brand photography, and Adele now specialises in working with businesses to provide tailored images to support their marketing and brand campaigns.
‘Before training as a brand photography specialist, I would carry out a shoot for a company’s website or campaign, send them the pictures and leave them to it,’ she said. ‘What I didn’t realise was that a lot of my clients were not then really sure what to do with those images. Now, I spend time with the clients before the shoot getting to understand their values, what makes their business tick and how they want to convey themselves.
‘We then carry out the shoot – which is always done in a very natural and authentic style – before I process the images. Critically, though, before handing over, say, 100 images, which can be quite overwhelming for the client, I also prepare a 30-day social-media planner, with a selection of images and suggested captions for each post. I also use the words from our planning sessions to make a showreel, set to music, which they can use on their website and social-media channels, to help tell their story.’
Her approach has won her many clients, among which are several female-owned or family-run businesses.
‘A lot of my clients are women who have been in the corporate world themselves and then moved away from that, often after a significant life event, such as having a baby,’ said Adele, who is a mother to two boys, Flynn (8) and Kye (3).
‘Typically, when they come to me, they have set up their own business and have reached the point where they are ready to take it to the next level and show people what they do. It’s fascinating for me, as every business is so different. I’ve worked on shoots for psychotherapists, life coaches, web designers and plastic surgeons, to name just a few.’
Although a far cry from her days spent working alongside the armed services, Adele says that there are still times when her engineering background proves useful.
‘Some of the family-run businesses I’ve photographed work in very practical areas, which is where my engineering side has come in,’ she said. ‘One client distributes metal poles and I had to think about how I could tell the story of a metal pole. It might sound bizarre but actually it was really good fun to bring it to life.’
When not out on shoots, Adele also focuses on the consultancy side of Super Funky Penguin, offering online visibility consultations to customers.
‘It’s funny because before I entered this area, I couldn’t imagine who wanted to work in sales and marketing but, through the brand photography specialist training, I’ve realised that a big part of the role is helping people to find those people who can help them.
‘With the online visibility, it’s a question of following the client journey across the business’s website, social media and online marketing to make sure it’s consistent and that everything makes sense and is easy for the customer. It’s not so much about a hard sell as making sure that we are capturing the attention of the people who we can best help.’
Juggling her job alongside bringing up her children, it was while getting her sons ready for bed one evening that she spotted an article about the Small Business Saturday SmallBiz100 awards.
Having launched in the UK in 2013, Small Business Saturday was originally founded by American Express in the US in 2010 to celebrate small businesses and encourage consumers to support such enterprises in their community.
Each year, the Small Business Saturday UK campaign identifies the nation’s 100 ‘most inspiring small firms’ from the 5.5 million such businesses in the country. These firms then form part of the SmallBiz100 line-up.
‘I entered the award, never imagining for a moment that I would hear any more about it so you can imagine how shocked I was when, several months after submitting the nomination, I received an email saying that Super Funky Penguin was one of the winners,’ she laughed.
As well as the publicity associated with the event, Adele and her husband, Ian, have attended celebratory networking events including a lunch at the House of Lords.
‘Those events have been great fun, and it’s always been lovely to go to some events and meet other small-business owners as, for much of the time, I’m sitting in front of my computer, on my own, at home,’ she said.
And while Adele will continue to work solo for the next year or so – apart from roping in Ian for childcare duties when necessary – she is hoping to take on an apprentice before too long.
‘I would love not only to grow the business and to have a second shooter at certain events,’ she explained, ‘but also to mentor someone who is really keen and give them the opportunity to develop their skills.’
