Whether a client is deciding between licensing existing images, scheduling a shoot, or both, it’s essential to align on art direction before anything else. Take it from Jessica Walsh, founder of &Walsh, a New York-based creative agency creating stunning work for brands like Lex, Baboon, and others.
Keep reading to learn more about Jessica’s approach to art design, and how she utilizes Stills’ Boards feature to align with clients and prepare for photo shoots.
Begin with understanding brand identity
Solid art direction starts with a concrete understanding of the brand. Start with creative attributes and written concepts of what the brand means and what the images should portray. For example, written concepts for &Walsh’s spec client—ice cream brand SCREAM—are Contagious Joy, Colorful, and Inclusive.
Yes, it requires a bit of extensive research and an understanding of the market and its category, brand, and consumer. However, developing a solid strategy is essential. “We like to push attributes to be much more unique and differentiated,” Jessica says. “The more unique the strategy is, the more unique the work is.”
Finetune your vision
Once the written concepts are concrete, finetune your vision of how to bring those attributes to life. This could be through written ideas and mockups, or sketches of any concepts or set design ideas. Then, Walsh recommends curating existing imagery for casting, lighting, and color references.
Make a moodboard for everything
Don’t stop with a singular moodboard. Instead, walk the client through your vision with multiple moodboards for each element. Using Stills’ Boards feature, Jessica prepared for the shoot by creating multiple Boards: Product, Model and Casting, Wardrobe, Images Clients can Directly License, and Lifestyle and Environments.
Product
For a Product moodboard, Jessica recommends that you aim to curate imagery that aligns with the creative attributes of the brand. For example, SCREAM’s Product moodboard is an inclusive collection of all things colorful, vibrant, and fun.
Model and casting
To find models that would be a good fit for the shoot, reference the brand’s target customer. For &Walsh’s spec client SCREAM, their target demographics are Gen-Z and Millennials. You’ll also want to tie back to the brand’s attributes—SCREAM values inclusivity, so this board reflects that.
Wardrobe
“We curated the wardrobe mood board to include colorful clothing and energetic makeup to pay off on that feeling of colorful and contagious joy” Jessica says.
Images clients can directly license
“Sometimes our client’s budget is too tight for entirely custom photoshoots,” Jessica says. “Let’s say they can only afford a one-day instead of a two-day shoot. So with this collection, we can share a mix of licensable assets that can work alongside our custom shoot to save our client some money.”
Utilizing Stills’ collection, you can easily specify for the client if the images are all included in the same shoot. You can also recommend to only use licensable images on a specific campaign or social media.
Lifestyle and environment
“Our team likes to showcase the branding with moodboard images to give the client an early sense of how this can all come together holistically. In this, we get a broader sense of the environment a brand exists,” Jessica says. “Images like this truck are great for mockups to get an idea of how your brand work can exist in the real world. We can use these to show mockups of the brand and create other assets.”
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Time to get started
Once you and the client are aligned on the art direction, it’s time to start licensing assets. To get started, utilize Stills‘ streamlined search filters to narrow down your search for images or explore full shoots from our roster of authentic, relevant artists. You can explore some of &Walsh’s boards for inspiration on lifestyle, product, wardrobe, and model and casting images for their spec client, SCREAM.
