The Portfolio Photographers

This week in portfolio our professors had two professional photographers come in and give presentations about their photographs and processes. Each one showed us pictures of past communications design projects that they've taken, explained different set-up, lighting and prop options, and counseled us on how to prepare for our own shoot. Kinda scary. It's coming up fast and I have a lot to do. Everything I need photographed must be perfected in only a little over a month. Hoo boy.

The thing is, those pictures look AMAZING. When you see how beautiful the projects look when professionally shot you realize, it HAS to be a professional. I could never take such gorgeous pictures on my own. I don't have the camera, the lights, the props and most importantly, the know-how. These guys have done this before, and they'll do it again for me.

Other than photography, tea is still on my mind. My Bigelow redesign project is proving to be a lot of fun. In my critique last week my professor told me to ditch most everything about the old packaging. He said that it was ugly (true) and that the awful design of it trumped any kind of brand equity that the product currently has. I'm taking him at his word on that one. I think there's something to the big titles and the bold solid colors. As a compromise I'm keeping the shape of the logo and the use of colors to classify the teas, or at least keeping the colors that are already delineated to the flavors.

The interesting thing about the Bigelow brand is that it is very American, which is kind of rare with tea. Even if the company is American, a lot of time tea tries to look either British or Asian. Bigelow is a family owned company, and they own the only American tea plantation. Therefore, I'm trying to incorporate a bit of "American" into the packaging. Nothing over the top. No stars and stripes (yet). But I am now researching what style or imagery subtly but solidly communicates the American-ness of a product. Old painted barns, quilts, denim, flannel plaid... we'll see what fits and what sticks.