The challenge
K18, a San Francisco haircare brand, came to us for its upcoming website. When we started talking, the products were still in the making: there were no physical samples to photograph.
Martin told them they didn't need any. Reference images, the packaging and logo files and a general idea of how the products look were enough to build them in 3D. K18's look is clean and minimal, built on a few brand colors, and the new images had to fit it.
The process
From the 3D models we made catalog images on white and on K18's brand colors for the website and eShop. For the styled shots, K18's design team asked for simple risers and blocks. After the first ones, Marian Huang, K18's Director of Design and Visual Merchandising, chose the blocks concept for all remaining styled images, on the light gray of the catalog shots, with one option using the three brand colors on the blocks.
The shot list paired the 150 ml Mist with the 150 ml Mask, showed the 50 ml Mask on its own and the full collection together, and one concept had double helix shapes in the background formed from the product textures, spray and liquid. Three shots also got a motion version, with particles coming out of the products. Marian's notes on the animations were specific: put the 50 ml on the coral background, and speed up the ending from about the 4–5 second mark.
The review ran in the brief's slides in December 2020. Marian asked for brighter products, the gray of the catalog shots behind them, fewer squares in red and green, and products floating more simply. Her last round was about details: a slight highlight so the bottles looked less matte, the missing spray hole on the Mist pump, a floating cap for the Mask and more contrast in the background. Denis worked through each list, and on 14 December the first images were "approved for final upload"; the last fixes, the color of the spray hole and the green peptide logo on the Mist, went out the next day.
The outcome
K18 received catalog images, styled shots and animations for its website, eShop and social media. In Martin's words, they are using them on social media "with a lot of success", in both the animations and the images.
The work didn't stop there. In a later project we modeled a K18 cosmetic bag, thrown in the air on a brand-color background, with the fabric texture and folds recreated in 3D.
