Here at Mindspace, we love creating great end products for our clients. But creating great work often times requires great assets, and custom photography is definitely one example. We believe custom photography (rather than simply plugging in stock art) helps make the end product so much more personal and believable, which is why when the opportunity for a photoshoot arises, we always take it!
Depending on the job and our schedule, we either handle the art direction/planning and outsource the project to one of our photography partners, or we do the job ourselves. We’ve had the pleasure of working on some fun photo shoots in the past few months. Here is a glimpse into the blood, sweat and tears that went into a recent shoot. (Okay… maybe no blood or tears, but there was definitely some sweat since we were shooting in the desert!)
The shoot was for Brillare Hairdressing Academy (formerly Toni & Guy Hairdressing Academy). We are in the midst of rebranding them from head to toe and the shoot was just a piece of the puzzle. We’ll share more specifics on the Brillare rebrand in another post, but for now, here’s how we tackled the custom photography project.
As we took inventory of the assets we had to work with for the rebrand, we came to the conclusion that the academy’s “look” didn’t convey the young vibrancy and passion of the Brillare culture. We felt that the academy’s photos would speak to prospective students in particular, so we decided to plan a large, two-day shoot in order to capture what we needed.
The decision was made to hire a super talented, young, hip, fun and local photographer who’d be able to achieve the fun, funky flavor the photos needed to convey. We chose Promise Tangeman as our photographer, brought on Alexandra Evjen of Ave Styles to style our models, Chanel Warwick to act as make-up artist and students of the schools to style the hair, of course. Now that we had our team in place, we still needed models. And what would be better and more believable than to use actual students? We held a model search at both Brillare school locations to find our representatives, and we ended up with great candidates.
As the plan began to take shape, we chose places that would highlight the location of the schools and the uniqueness of the valley. The first shoot took place in the desert and yes—it was hot! Aside from having to scale a cliff carrying a large bench and salon chair, the shoot went without a hitch.
The second location took place at the new Scottsdale Quarter, which is where the Academy will be moving their Scottsdale location. The area is already so lively, so we wanted to convey the excitement and action of the location in the photos.
The unifying theme throughout both photoshoots was inspired by the Academy’s name. Brillare means “to shine” in Italian, so both shoots had a specific aesthetic focus on lighting. As a result, all of the photos utilize sun flare or are dependent on a sunny “glow.” The outcome of the shoot was phenomenal and we are ecstatic to have a large library of assets to use moving forward.
What are your thoughts? We’d love to hear what you think!
Behind the scenes:
More From Brain Matter
- Hello, we’re Miiiiiindnnndddspace
- Why is the “Got Milk?” Slogan So Popular?
- Mind ‘Space’
- Are You Budgeting/Planning “Let’s Help Out” PR?
- Monitoring Your Brand Online – Is It Enough?
Brain Matter Recommends
- “Social Media” is hype. “social media” is real.
- The Social Web Is A Bag Of Skittles
- The Day The Brand Died
