Freshly Whipped
Forming my love for all things photography, videography, art direction, design, and of course cars, Freshly Whipped was my blog that ran for over 3 years. It taught me the foundations for all that I do now, and took me around the world.
At its peak Freshly Whipped was hitting close to 50,000 views a month, and 13,000 Facebook fans.
I had a crush on this girl. She was pretty, arty, a bit different, and was into photography. I always liked photos but didn’t really understand the depth of photography. I guess by some way-shape-form she introduced me to photography.
Through some short-lived crush, she got me hooked on what would later become my full-time job and the beginning of my creative career.
I saved up some money and waited till the boxing day sales. Surely enough the Canon 1000D that I had my eye on came on sale. I bought the camera. It was little, but still a DSLR, enough to get me started on taking real pictures.
My brother, father, and I traveled to Taranaki that year to visit relatives in Kapuni. We stayed at a motel in New Plymouth and ventured out to see my 90-year-old Great Uncle. His name’s Jack, he’s now 100, and has climbed Mt Taranaki some 400-odd times.
The breakthrough came in the form of a waterfall picture. Every year Pukekura Park in New Plymouth hosts a ‘lights in the park’ festival. Amazing installations are created to light up various parts of the park. Pukekura Park is a gem in the daylight. Once you add lights to the park, it truly becomes something incredible.
I spied a waterfall with water gushing over lights projected into the whitewash. With the little knowledge that I had, I took a photo of the waterfall at a slow shutter speed.
The shot turned out great and I submitted it to the NZ Heralds summer photo competition. A few weeks later my photo was printed large, in colour, on the back page of New Zealand’s largest herald. It was a great feeling, a feeling of recognition but also of achievement, almost like “hey maybe I’m ok at this photography thing?”.
NZ Herald - Summer Special 2010/11
A week later the Four and Rotary Nationals were taking place at Auckland’s Greenlane Showgrounds. This is the premier event for all hotted-up boy-racer cars.
I was introduced to a drifter named Sky Zhao, he took me under his wing and said “hey why don’t you come to my buddies track day tomorrow in Pukekohe? Take some photos?”. I immediately went running back to my friends’ house, eager to tell him the news of this private track day. I got there early, took some photos, met some people and had fun.
It was after these events that I maybe I should start a little blog, write about these cars, and put my photos up. I guess as some form of creative outlet?
I came up with ‘Freshly Whipped’, some people called cars ‘fresh’, others as ‘whips’, the two just came together easily.
Given the name sounded so closely related to ‘freshly whipped cream’ I wanted to create a logo that was synonymous with ice cream. A somewhat 50’s milk bar vibe, with a hint of Kiwiana.
As the blog developed, so did the logo. After a few years of the initial logo, I phased it out in favour of something I thought was a little more on-brand, still maintaining the original vintage look, but this time with a slight graffiti appeal.
I started the blog on Tumblr. It was clunky, and really not the most ideal platform to use, but at the time it was something I was familiar with. Every time I wrote a new piece I’d make a whole new page, link it to the front page, then work it like a blog. My world changed when my brother and I converted the website over to WordPress. I wasn’t happy with Tumblr’s image quality either so I managed to host all of the files offsite.
Freshly Whipped became a full-time job quite quickly and meant I was working on the project every bit of spare time I had available. I wanted to market the brand but didn’t understand how to, the first thing that came to mind was stickers. I had designed my logo and managed to get it made into die-cut vinyl stickers that people could put on their cars. Demand quickly grew and the stickers would sell out in an hour. I couldn’t keep up the supply and would often do ‘limited edition’ colours to charge more, decrease supply, and sell out fast. I think this helped pay my way through university…
From there the tee shirts arrived, I did a first few initial runs with different graphics I had come up with and found some minor success. I went on to do a full line of shirts that then sold out within a few days. I still get photos of people wearing the tees to this day.
Joe Kukutai’s custom race suit featuring Freshly Whipped on arms.
I managed to get sent all across New Zealand following the D1NZ Drifting Championship, then onto the World Time Attack Championship in Sydney, then further abroad to Fuji Speedway in Japan.
I worked closely with Mad Mike Whiddett and his team for many years. He’s regarded as the most famous drifter in the world.
Mazda Australia commissioned this photoshoot at the World Time Attack event in Sydney, Australia.
As mediums changed, I wanted to gain access to videography as well. I sought out ways to mount and fit DSLR’s to cars, try and get better angles, and better quality footage. At the time Go-Pro’s were fine, but not really cutting it.
It became quite common to see me running around with cases full of weird arms and gear, mounting cameras to places they shouldn’t be and hoping for the best.
My Honda Civic had its fair share of suction cup moments - chasing race cars around tracks all over the country. With the right driver behind the wheel, somehow this car can keep up.
I began producing Mad Mike Whiddett’s content for his social accounts.
Freshly Whipped lead me onto becoming one of the editors for New Zealand’s largest men’s magazine - NZ Performance Car. This paved way for working with brands like Rolls Royce, Lexus, and Porsche.
To this day I continue to pay for the server and domain subscriptions to keep Freshly Whipped alive.
It was a huge part of my life, and one that I’m incredibly grateful to have been through.