Kremer Johnson Rebuilds an AI Comp Without Losing Personality

When a client signs off on an AI-generated comp, the creative process gets complicated. The idea is approved, but the execution still has to be brought to life with real people, real art direction, real production, and in a way that fits legal, brand, and usage requirements. This challenge came about in a recent pharmaceutical campaign for photography duo Kremer/Johnson. Neil and Cory were tasked with recreating the concept while elevating it with their own visual voice.

Working with a CGI partner, they blended real talent and physical set builds with digitally created environments and overlays. The imagery maintains the personality-forward humor, attitude, and storytelling the duo is known for, while delivering on expectations.

How did you approach the intended creative direction? 

A challenge a lot of photographers are seeing now is clients being totally bought in on an AI comp presented by the agency. This is happening everywhere right now. The clients fall in love with the look, but the image can’t legally be used. In this case, we were asked to recreate the comp, not reinterpret it. The key for us was: how do we honor what the client has emotionally attached to, while still bringing our own taste, humor, and art direction to it?

So we rebuilt the scene within the framework of the comp, but the choices,  the styling, the tone, the props, the little visual jokes, those were ours. That’s where we were able to keep our voice in the image.

What did the collaboration with the CGI studio look like?

We combined real-world photography with CGI-built environments. Anything the talent interacted with physically was real, the lawnmower, wardrobe pieces, the cake in the bakery scene. We shot those on set. Then CGI extended and expanded the world around them. The goal was to keep everything feeling grounded, tactile, photographic, even when it was digital.

For the portrait series with the bone overlays, how did you merge character-driven photography with CGI medical visualization?

These were all about vibrant, active characters, older people who are strong, lively, and expressive. We designed the bone CGI to integrate cleanly with those personalities. On set, the biggest challenge was posing. How could we find ways for the talent to move naturally while also making sure the CGI overlay would align correctly later? A lot of that came from leaving room to improvise and respond to what felt authentic in the moment.

With AI and CGI becoming more standard in comps and concepts, where do you feel your role as photographers is evolving?

For us, the job is still the same at its core: make people feel something. Tools shift. Pipelines shift. But personality is what people remember. AI might introduce an idea. CGI might build a world. But we’re the ones who bring nuance, humor, humanity, and style to it. That’s the part that can’t be automated.