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Small Team. Big Picture.

The MLK Bar is a small but mighty Australian creative studio specialising in photography, videography, design, and social, all under one roof.

Most businesses cobble their creative together. A photographer here.A designer there. A social person who also does video, kind of. The result is content that doesn't quite match, a brand that doesn't quite connect, and a growing list of people to brief, chase, and invoice.We built The MLK Bar to fix that. When the same people who shoot your brand photos are also editing your reels, designing your print collateral, and planning your content calendar, everything looks like it belongs together. Because it does.We work with businesses across Australia who are serious about how they show up. From their shopfront, on their website, on social, in print, and everywhere in between. Whether you need a one-off shoot, a full rebrand, or an ongoing creative partner who handles the whole picture, we're set up to deliver it.No layers. No handovers. No briefs lost in translation.Just good work, done properly, by people who give a damn.

Frequently asked questions

The MLK Bar is a small, multi-disciplinary creative studio based in Australia. We handle photography, videography, graphic design, and social media content — all under one roof, with one team. Most businesses that need creative work end up hiring a photographer here, a designer there, and a social media person somewhere else. That's expensive, slow, and usually produces work that doesn't look cohesive. We do it all, so everything looks like it belongs together. Whether you need a one-off product shoot, a full brand identity, a monthly social content package, or a promotional video for a campaign launch, we can handle it — and we can handle all of it at once if needed.

We work with all kinds of businesses, but our sweet spot is small-to-medium businesses, hospitality and food brands, product companies, service businesses, and anyone who has an established brand (or wants to build one) and knows that professional creative content is non-negotiable for growth. We've worked with cafes and restaurants, retail brands, trades and professional services, fitness and wellness businesses, and product launches. If you're a business that needs to look good and get noticed — we're built for you.

Large agencies have large overheads — account managers, layers of approval, and project managers sitting between you and the people actually doing the creative work. That structure adds cost and slows everything down. At The MLK Bar, you deal directly with the people holding the camera, editing the video, and designing your assets. There's no brief getting lost in handovers. Decisions get made faster, feedback gets actioned faster, and the finished product is usually better because the people who made it cared about it personally. You also get consistency. When the same team handles your photography, video, and design, the work has a unified look without anyone having to chase down brand guidelines or re-brief a new contractor.

We're based in Australia and called the Gold coast and Northern NSW home. We constantly travel from Byron Bay up to Brisbane and all through the Gold Coast. Being close to the Airport, we find ourselves always on the move, from Sydney to Melbourne and all up and down the East Coast of Australia. If you're outside our immediate area, get in touch and we'll work out the logistics — travel costs are discussed upfront so there are no surprises. For design and social media work, location doesn't matter at all. We work with clients remotely across the world without any issues.

The easiest way is to reach out via our contact page or send us an email directly. Tell us roughly what you need — even if it's vague, like "I need better content for social" or "we're launching a new product" — and we'll come back with a plan and a quote. We don't charge for initial consultations. Before any money changes hands, we want to make sure we're a good fit and that we understand exactly what you're trying to achieve.

New businesses often need the most help — building a brand identity from scratch, getting professional images before they launch, setting up their social presence properly from day one. Established businesses come to us when they've outgrown their current creative setup or want to elevate what they're already doing. The brief is different but the process is the same: understand what you need, build a plan, execute it well.

We shoot across a wide range of commercial photography categories, including product photography (e-commerce, lifestyle, and hero shots for physical products), brand photography (portrait, team, and culture shots that represent your people), food and hospitality photography (menus, hero dishes, venue interiors, and lifestyle), event photography (corporate events, product launches, conferences, and activations), architectural and interior photography (spaces, fit-outs, and environments), and social content photography (high-volume shoots designed for ongoing content calendars). If you're not sure which category your project falls into, just describe what you need the images for and we'll tell you how we'd approach it.

It depends entirely on the scope. A focused product shoot for 20–50 hero images might take two to three hours on location. A brand day covering your team, workspace, and lifestyle content could run a full six to eight hours. Large event coverage is typically booked by the day. We'll always discuss the scope with you before booking so you know exactly how much time is allocated and why. We'd rather take the time to do it properly than rush and deliver something that doesn't match the brief.

Standard turnaround for edited photos is five to ten business days depending on volume. For time-sensitive projects — a product launch, a campaign that needs to go live quickly — we offer expedited turnarounds and can often get you a first delivery within 48–72 hours. Rush timelines are quoted accordingly. You'll receive your images via an online gallery where you can download full-resolution files immediately.

Yes. All commercial photography we produce for clients is delivered with full commercial usage rights. You can use the images on your website, in social media, in print, in advertising, and anywhere else your business needs. We don't lock you into licensing fees or restrict how you use work you've paid for. The only exception is if you've commissioned creative work explicitly as a limited-use campaign — in those cases, usage terms are set out in writing before the project begins.

It depends on the shoot type. For product and brand photography, clients typically supply the hero products — that's the starting point. We handle composition, lighting, and styling to make those products look their best. For food shoots, we work closely with your kitchen or chef to get hero dishes looking exactly right. If additional props, surfaces, or specialist styling are needed and will significantly elevate the result, we'll discuss that during pre-production. We'll always recommend rather than assume.

Both. We're comfortable shooting on location at your venue, premises, or wherever the brief calls for, as well as in a controlled studio environment. Many projects benefit from a mix of both — controlled studio shots for clean product imagery, and on-location lifestyle shots for context and warmth. We'll recommend the right approach for your specific brief.

e produce a wide range of commercial video content including brand films (longer-form storytelling that introduces your business, your team, and what you stand for), promotional videos (short, punchy content for campaigns, product launches, and seasonal promotions), social media reels and shorts (vertical and square content formatted for Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook), product videos (demonstrations, unboxings, and lifestyle footage that sells), testimonial and case study videos (real customers talking about real results, properly shot and edited), event coverage (highlight reels and full-day coverage of launches, conferences, and activations), and behind-the-scenes content (authentic, in-process footage that builds trust and brand personality).

Video production has three phases: pre-production (planning and preparation), the shoot itself, and post-production (editing, colour, sound, and delivery). A short social reel with straightforward editing might be turned around in three to five business days from shoot. A brand film or multi-location promo video typically takes two to four weeks from shoot day to final delivery, allowing time for a proper edit, your review and feedback, and any revisions. We'll always give you a realistic timeline upfront.

Yes. We can handle the full creative package — scripting, music licensing, and voiceover casting and direction — so you don't have to piece it together yourself. All music we use in client videos is properly licensed for commercial use, so there are no copyright issues when you publish on social platforms or use in ads. If you already have a script or a specific track in mind, we're equally happy to work with what you've got. The pre-production conversation is where we work all of this out before shoot day.

We deliver in whatever formats your distribution channels require. Standard outputs include 16:9 landscape (website, YouTube, presentations), 9:16 vertical (Instagram Reels, TikTok, Facebook Stories), 1:1 square (Instagram and Facebook feed), and 4:5 portrait (Instagram feed — the best-performing mobile ratio). If you need one piece of content cut for multiple platforms, we'll plan the shoot to capture the right coverage and deliver multiple exports from a single edit session — an efficient way to get maximum reach from one shoot day.

Standard packages include two rounds of revisions after the first cut is delivered. In our experience, a well-planned shoot and a thorough brief means most projects are locked after the first or second review. Revisions beyond the standard allowance are billed at an hourly rate, disclosed upfront. The best way to minimise revisions is a detailed pre-production conversation — the more clearly we understand what you want before we shoot, the less likely you are to want changes after.

Yes, and it's an area where professional production makes a significant commercial difference. Ad creative that looks polished and intentional performs better than content that looks casual or low-budget — even when the brief is to appear "authentic." We can produce video assets cut to standard ad specifications for Meta, Google, YouTube, and TikTok, including multiple variations for A/B testing if needed.

Our design offering covers the full spectrum of visual communication for businesses, including brand identity (logo design, colour systems, typography, and brand guidelines), print and packaging (menus, brochures, flyers, signage, labels, and packaging design), digital design (social media templates, email headers, digital ads, and website assets), environmental design (window graphics, wall art, shopfront and venue signage), and marketing collateral (promotional materials, pitch decks, and campaign assets). Because we sit alongside our photography and video team, design assets can be created that directly incorporate your shoot content — everything looks intentional rather than assembled after the fact.

Absolutely. Brand identity is one of our core capabilities. A proper brand identity project starts with understanding your business: who you are, who your customers are, and what feeling you want people to have when they encounter your brand. From there we develop visual concepts — logo marks, colour palettes, typographic systems, and guidelines for how it all fits together. You'll receive production-ready files in all standard formats (PNG, SVG, PDF, EPS) plus a brand guidelines document that tells anyone working on your brand exactly how to use it correctly. A brand that's documented properly is a brand that stays consistent as your business grows.

Many businesses come to us with an established logo and brand identity and need design work that fits within it — menu updates, campaign materials, social templates, signage, and so on. We'll ask for your existing brand assets and guidelines and work within your visual system so everything is consistent. If we notice things that could be improved — a logo file that's low quality, a colour palette that doesn't translate well across formats — we'll flag it and let you decide whether you want to address it or not.

We deliver everything you need to actually use your design — not just a JPEG you can't edit. For logos and brand assets, standard delivery includes PNG (transparent background versions for digital use), SVG (scalable vector format for web), PDF (print-ready vector for printers), and EPS (industry standard for signage, embroidery, and large-format print). For print files such as menus, brochures, and flyers, we deliver print-ready PDFs with correct bleeds, crop marks, and colour profiles for the specified print process. We can also liaise directly with your printer if needed.

We build full service, fit for purpose websites designed to make your brand stand out. We Specialise in Shopify and e-ccomerce website builds. Gone are the days of being charge an arm and a leg for a website to be built.

Yes, and it's honestly how we work best with most clients. A retainer means we're your ongoing creative partner — we know your brand, your team, and your goals, and we're planning and producing content on a regular cadence without you having to re-brief us from scratch each time. It's more efficient, more cost-effective per deliverable, and produces better creative output over time as the relationship matures. Retainer arrangements are available for social media management, regular photography, and ongoing design support. We structure them around your actual needs rather than forcing you into a fixed package that doesn't fit.

We don't publish fixed price lists because every project is scoped individually. A product shoot for a small business is a different job to a national brand campaign, and pricing a menu that way would either undervalue one or price the other out unnecessarily. What we guarantee is a written quote before any work starts, with a clear breakdown of what's included and what it costs. No surprises after the fact. Get in touch and we'll turn around a quote quickly — usually within 24 to 48 hours of understanding the brief.

Yes. When we're combining photography, video, design, and social on a single project or retainer, there are genuine efficiencies in time and resources that we pass on in the pricing. A shoot day that produces content for multiple purposes costs less per deliverable than four separate shoot days. If you're planning an ongoing relationship across multiple services, let us know upfront — we'll structure a proposal that makes sense across the full scope rather than quoting each piece in isolation.

No. Every quote includes a clear list of what's included, and anything that falls outside scope — additional revision rounds, travel beyond the quoted range, specialist equipment, licensed music — is flagged and quoted before we proceed. You'll never receive an invoice for something that wasn't agreed in advance. If something comes up mid-project that changes the scope, we'll have a conversation about it and agree how to handle it before it affects the budget or timeline. Surprises are bad for everyone; we work hard to avoid them.

For larger projects and retainer arrangements, we're happy to discuss payment schedules that work for both sides. The standard structure is 50% upfront and 50% on delivery, but for multi-month retainers or projects with extended timelines, we can break payments into milestones. Bring it up in the initial conversation and we'll work something out.

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