Whenever I hear a client say "I trust you, just do what you think is best" my heart leaps for joy! Then immediately drops to my stomach.
I'm excited because I strongly believe being a part of the creative process is where I thrive, I get to flush out all the ideas that have been circling in my head. But this excitement used to be met with an almost crippling fear.
What if they HATE my ideas?
What if I hate my ideas?
What If I don't have any ideas?
These three fears used to cause me a great deal of anxiety until I developed an almost foolproof process. If you work with me today and allow me to have creative control, this is what the process will look like.
We will meet and I will get a feel for you, the brand owner, your personality, and some of the things you like. Then I will stalk your brand's social pages and website. I will jot down TONS of notes. Things I like, dislike, am inspired by, want to avoid etc.
Next I will ask you the following questions, and if you don't have answers, we can come up with answers together or I'll answer them (with your approval).
What are they making? IG Images? FB ads? Packaging images? Are the pictures for your ecommerce or product page or do you need a header image? Maybe you are doing a national billboard, or got a spot in a magazine... I'll get a clear answer (this will also determine the price)
Who are we making this for? Basically I want to know about your target audience. What are their likes, dislikes, what's unique about them.
Why are we shooting these images? Is it for brand awareness or product awareness or something else?
When are we shooting and releasing these images? This is soooo important for many reasons. One interesting reason that I have run into is not having specific fruit in season to purchase at the store.
Where will this be released? Is it worldwide? Regional?
Next I will do a deep dive into what your competitors are doing. We want your images to stand out! WE don't want to ever recreate what everyone else is doing in your industry because it is likely you will get lost in the sauce.
I will then come up with an idea based on everything above. The idea will be something that will speak directly to your audience.
Last, we produce!
I followed those exact steps to produce a mock billboard for TGIN. The (pretend) brief was to create a billboard to be released in February in the NorthEast region of the country. TGIN's Honey Miracle Mask is a moisturizing hair mask for people with natural hair.
These are the answers to the above questions.
What? Billboard
Who? People with Natural Hair
Why? Product Awareness
When? Spring
Where? North East Region of the country.
To skip ahead a bit, the unique tidbit about our target demographic is that we buy LOTS of products many never get used up.
The idea is to shoot a spit image. On one side a container of an unnamed hair product had half dead dry flowers growing out of it. The other half of the image is a TGIN container with beautiful healthy flowers growing out of it.
This will be a nod to Spring as well as the idea of Spring cleaning and "out with the old, in with the new".
I shot a few images just to be sure this is the direction I wanted to go in, They came out great! But don't tell a specific story which is often what happens without clear creative direction.
This is the final image before text.
This is after the copy was added.
I made such a silly mistake here (I didn't sketch it out first) I should have represented the TGIN product on the right and the unnamed product on the left because this is how we read. It tells the story in chronological order. I'd never do this for a real shoot!
If you are interested in chatting about how we can work together, email me!