There are times when stock photography just won't work. For example, when you're doing a brochure showcasing your client's products and capabilities. Iowa Spring Manufacturing makes custom springs for the garage door, agricultural, and mechanical industries. We needed images to use in a folder and brochure project, so we hired a local photographer to work with us on location for a day. We put on our safety goggles and found so many great shots. Springs create some really interesting patterns — in addition to the action shots, we stopped along the way for many product close-ups.
These colorful spring photos were taken years ago, but are still being used by Iowa Spring today. The assignment? Take their core product — garage door springs, plus a variety of other springs — and create images that are interesting enough to use on a trade show booth. Collaborating with the studio photographer, we played off the primary color of Iowa Spring's red logo and created a series of bright product photos. The client was so thrilled, they printed and framed poster-sized prints and redecorated the conference room.
Put a group of excited kids in a photo studio with a pile of fluffy pillows and what could possibly go wrong? :) These photo shoots in the Meredith facilities were so fun. The marketing department for a quilting magazine asked me to help with their annual 1,000,000 Pillowcases promotion. Because the campaign needed graphics for nearly every media type, we needed a huge variety of photos. We worked with the prop department to create a basic set, then photographed kids individually, in groups, on the floor, on a bed, on chairs, in a pile of pillows, and sometimes even on the move. We achieved our goal of capturing some sweet moments. And, of course, we ended up capturing some typical "kid" moments in the outtakes.
A throw back to my days at the agency, and one of the first shoots I handled as an art director. Waukesha Cherry Burrell was an international equipment manufacturing company who's food processing division did a lot of advertising in trade publications. We all know that trade publications, especially those that serve equipment manufacturers, can be really ugly. Everyone's first instinct is to showcase the product they make, resulting in a magazine full of metal machinery. So how do you stand out? For our full page ads, we went a different direction. Using a stainless steel backdrop, we brought in colorful lighting to highlight the foods that were being created in that machinery. The end product, and the solution they were providing their customers. It was a very successful and eye-catching campaign, And along the way, I learned how food stylists make fake ice cream.
Another client from my days at the agency, Cargill Foods produces starches that are used in commercial baked goods, processed meats, and liquid foods. The writer on our team brainstormed a "FOODability" campaign, and we needed a range of photography to create print ads, trade show materials, press kits, and product brochures. This shoot spanned nearly a week, as we traveled to the corporate headquarters in Wisconsin and hired a photographer local to the area. Some photos were taken in the Cargill facilities, to document the company's bake lab, R&D lab, and more, then the remaining food shots were done in studio.