Case Study: COYA Mayfair - Valentine's

Brief.

COYA Mayfair are a long-standing repeat client, and for this session, I was commissioned to support a Valentine’s campaign, where atmosphere, emotion, and context are as important as the food itself.

The brief was to produce lifestyle-led food photography that captured the feeling of dining at COYA during Valentine’s - intimate, vibrant, and celebratory. The content also needed to be flexible enough for use across marketing, social, and booking touchpoints.

Rather than prioritising menu clarity or platform performance, the outcome here was experiential. The imagery needed to place the viewer inside the restaurant and communicate mood, occasion, and brand confidence, while maintaining the composed, premium feel COYA is known for.

Approach.

I approached the shoot as a controlled, lifestyle-focused restaurant photography session, with an emphasis on composition, pacing, and context.

The session focused on hero dishes, drinks pairings, and grouped table scenes, using careful placement and framing to suggest a shared dining experience. This allowed the imagery to feel intentional and elevated, while conveying warmth and occasion.

Scenes were built to reflect how the food and drinks are experienced within the space, showing balance, variety, and flow across the menu. By keeping the setups composed and restrained, the food photography remains timeless and adaptable, rather than tied to a single campaign moment.

The resulting image set gives COYA a cohesive library of lifestyle imagery that supports Valentine’s messaging while remaining usable beyond the campaign itself - reinforcing brand atmosphere, consistency, and confidence across channels.