Are you ready to take your visuals to the next level, to boost your brand and perfect your publicity?
I firmly believe that access to advice, resources and strategic style guidance shouldn’t be reserved only for the big industry players with very deep pockets. Whether you’re a designer/maker or specialist seller just starting out on your business journey, or are a small-but-growing brand ready to elevate your appearance, let me help steer you.
My broad range of experience across the interiors industry places me in a unique position: I regularly style shoots and create content for brands looking to get more converting customers and promotional press features, while also working on the ‘other side’ as a freelance journalist for interiors magazines and as a Contributing Trends Reporter for global trend forecasting agency WGSN.
In other words, I spend most of my days searching for great brands, products, trends and stories to feature, while also working with brands to produce them from their end. And I’ve got a LOT of thoughts on how to doing the former can help the latter, and how brands can best communicate their values and stand out from the crowd.
There’s a number of common things I see which could be letting your brand down - the main ones are:
Overlooking (or under-appreciating) the important role of good styling in product photography (while the technical element is important, you can always edit a photograph - but you can’t edit bad styling that’s missing the mark)
A disjointed visual approach - whether that’s a lack of cohesive design across brand assets and visuals, or a poorly thought out strategy (such as a brand whose values are based around organic materials and sustainability, yet their digital design feels stark and their product shots are styled against plastic backdrops)
Producing photography that serves to sell your product, but doesn’t tell a story - making it harder to gain potential press coverage and connect emotionally to your customers
By paying close attention to your product styling and looking at the bigger picture of how this relates back to your brand, and forward into your promotional activity, you can create a concept and approach that can act as a blueprint for the whole thing.
Here’s how we could do it:
brand consultation:
Whether you’re simply not sure what you need, or you know you require help working on the visual side of your brand, a pick-my-brains power hour or more tailored in-depth consultation could give you the focus and clarity you need to create some powerful changes.
I could help with:
An audit or overview of your brand’s overall visual direction and copy across your website, brochures and social channels, suggesting actions and changes for improvement to make everything more cohesive and appealing
Curating trend directions your brand could take, tailored to your own requirements and brand values, to steer future product lines, inform marketing approaches, or guide the aesthetics and styling of future product shoots
Analysis of your current product photography, with suggestions for how to improve your styling alongside practical steps to follow and suggested resources for backgrounds, props and other shoot services
Creating a shoot style strategy guide to follow for future product shoots, taking into account both your sales needs, and what will appeal to the press
Advising on both visual and written storytelling touchpoints across your digital presence, to ensure you’re using your brand design and colours cohesively, or helping bring through a more editorial voice and visual approach
Talking through ideas for an overall press strategy, sharing plenty of links, resources and strategic ideas to help get your work seen and into the media
OPTION ONE:
PICK MY BRAINS
If you’re struggling with a specific issue or simply aren’t sure how to approach styling and shooting your products, book onto a call and we can spend an hour talking through any visual aspects you might be stuck on.
Whether that’s improving your own styling for your brand’s photography, guiding you on how to increase your chances of getting press and publicity, or helping you define your visual identity and bringing this across all of your brand’s touchpoints, you’ll leave with a clearer idea of what changes to implement, and how to go about them.
After our call you’ll receive a recording to refer back to, along with a written report detailing suggestions to implement plus links and resources related to our discussion.
Price: £150
How to book: click here to register your interest - you’ll then receive a questionnaire to fill in so we can hit the ground running when we speak.
OPTION two:
bespoke brand consultation
Need some more tailored guidance, or help creating a brand blueprint? I can help steer you towards achieving your objectives, providing the tools and guidance you need to move your brand to the next level.
After an initial one-hour consultation call, I’ll work for you to create a tailored brand guide which you can use as a ‘bible’ for whatever you require, featuring whatever you want extra help with.
This service can be completely tailored to suit your requirements, and could cover multiple topics or home in on just one issue.
Price: from £350
How to book: contact me directly to talk through your requirements - from there, I can give you a quote or arrange a discovery call so we can work out your objectives
remote styling consultancy:
There comes a time in any start-up when you realise you need to uplevel your business, and start taking your appearance a little more seriously. However, if you’re a small brand or designer/maker, chances are the cost of a full bells-and-whistles photoshoot might be prohibitively expensive for you. But I’ve had an idea…
HOW ABOUT I GUIDE YOU REMOTELY?
Working as a ‘stylist’ doesn’t necessarily convey the whole picture of what I do when I style for brands. Often, the actual styling element is simply the icing on the cake, with much of my time dedicated instead to planning, prepping and arranging logistics to ensure the shoot day runs smoothly, looks fabulous and brings out the inherent qualities of your brand or products.
If you’ve not got the budget for a fully fledged photoshoot, but need help figuring out how to plan, style, set up and source props for a DIY shoot, I can offer the next-best-thing and creatively direct, plan and manage your shoot remotely, providing you with everything you need to move things forward and create a successful set of images that pay for themselves tenfold. Not only can this maximise your chances of improved sales, it could provide you with valuable image assets to increase your chances of getting some press coverage, too.
You’ll receive a thoroughly researched shoot styling plan to implement which takes into account your brand’s values and ethos, as well as any practical requirements and current trend considerations, with styling suggestions that support your overall message and appeal to customers and the press. I’ll offer suggestions for backgrounds, props and set-ups, create a shot list for you to follow on the day, and advise on any other elements you need help with. You’ll leave with a clear idea of how to implement this strategy for yourself, and an understanding of how to make informed choices on your shoot day to get the best results for you and your brand.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
We’ll start with a Zoom call to discuss your requirements, then I’ll work up your shot plan based on your brief, which will contain everything you need to implement the entire shoot yourself (or that you can share with your team or work through alongside a photographer).
Price: from £350
How to book: contact me directly to talk through your requirements - from there, I can give you a quote or arrange a discovery call so we can work out your objectives
Example remote styling shoot plan:
I like to tailor all my projects to each client, but here’s the general structure your remote room style strategy will follow:
“I highly recommend working with Joanna; she goes above and beyond expectations.
I was launching a new line of products and wanted to shoot everything afresh as well as refine my website and brand identity. I didn’t know where to start - I’m a small business selling facial products and tools, and planning things like this can be overwhelming. Joanna helped me get clearer on my brand and created a comprehensive shoot plan with suggested props and backgrounds that tied in with my brand values, and even worked out a shoot running order for me so I knew exactly what to do on my shoot day.
Joanna basically made it super easy for me, and I now follow these guidelines whenever I add in new stock. I regularly get remarks from clients on how much they love my website.”
— Donna Ryan, The Facial Goddess
new course coming soon!
shoot STYLING STRATEGY:
boost your brand and perfect your publicity
Launching Summer/Autumn 2023, this unique course will offer a done-with-you strategic approach to every aspect of your brand’s visual identity and styled photography, teaching you how to create imagery that aligns with your values and ethos, and talking you through how to use it as a brand building tool to engage customers and gain press coverage.
Whether you’ve managed to get by with iPhone snaps of your products so far (but you know they’re limiting your growth and stunting potential opportunities), you’ve created a graphic identity but aren’t really sure how this fits in with your brand values or your product photography, you’re unsure how to go about producing professional looking product shots, or you’d like to get featured in the press, but your images aren’t strong enough (or you have no idea how to go about it), this course will cover all of these questions and much more.
Combining pre-recorded teaching elements with live, interactive Q&A, I’ll be on hand to support you on every stage of your journey and empower you to make confident choices that will help move you in the right direction. I’ll also be inviting in experts from related fields, including photographers and PR’s, to talk in depth through every aspect of the process, and opening up my jam-packed Little Black Book of resources so you know exactly where to go for whatever related product or service you might need.
Sign up to be alerted when this course becomes available, and to find out more [sign-up link coming soon']
