A huge part of my job with HSI after photo retouch would be to create assets primarily for Amazon but would also be used for listings on the likes of Ebay and Debenhams. Below shows at least one example under each brand within HSI demonstrating how the factual and lifestyle images were used and how they would interact with each of the developed brand styles. The assets were built following a merchandising brief produced both by our head of marketing and copy writer, the images shot were to coincide with the selling points created within these and my job was to pull this all together in a visually appealing way that would best communicate each product online.
The assets demonstrated are shown in the two forms I built them in, the wider landscape examples are Amazon A+ assets, these are listed at the bottom of the product listing alongside more detailed text about the item itself. The more boxy square shaped assets are known as gallery images, these are the tiles you would typically see on an Amazon listing right at the top where you would flick through to find out more about the product.
Amazon A+ Example:
This set of assets was one of my favourite to create for the Livivo brand as I really enjoyed the retouch and being able to work with a product that had nice vibrant colours. These assets also include a new icon I made from scratch which illustrates the ksp really well and was super happy with how it came out. (slide 3)
Gallery Example:
One of my favourite details from building these assets was the choice to sample a colour from each bookcase and apply this to the corresponding text and icon. This was a really nice way to add extra detail to the final outcome and make the assets more appealing to children which is who this product was aimed towards. I also really liked how the lifestyles came out, they were very on brand for Livivo but had nice nuances to make them appealing to children as well.
Amazon A+ Example:
This next example of assets had so many challenging aspects to them but was really happy with how they came out in the end. Unfortunately there had been some problems with the studio meaning the original images didn't turn out the way the head of marketing and creative director had envisioned, using AI technologies and teamwork with the design lead we used the generate fill tool to make the child look like she was sleeping under the duvet in a bed with the hot water bottle instead of on a mattress with no duvet.
I then had the idea of re colouring the bedsheets to match the chosen colours for the assets. This way the whole design would tie together, elevate the cosy feel and appeal further to children instead of maintaining a sterile white colour scheme. I also came up with the layout idea for the "available in 2 sizes assets" this was to help elevate the size difference between the two products in a fun eye catching style.
Gallery Example:
The second image of the girl holding the product was a challenge of compositing. This image was completely constructed by taking a selection of her smiling face and merging it with another shot that showed her holding the product from the chest down while placing this on a white background. This was requested to show the product being held in context for an idea of size in relation to a child, this involved a lot of colour correction and manipulation of the body and pose to look convincing.
I came up with the visual concept of the "how to use asset" I wanted to keep it contextual to the actual product instead of using a generic graph and keep it consistent with the blue colour scheme running throughout the assets. So together with the lead designer we came up with a way to show how to safely and correctly fill the bottle following the instructions that come with the product but keeping visual relevance by creating an outline of the animal. It's the attention to detail that went into these assets that I am really proud of.
Amazon A+ Example:
This example is a project I saw from start to finish in terms of retouch to going live online, I retouched each of the images, really enhancing the colourful glow in the dark element while designing all of the pairing illustrations from scratch to tie in with the brand style and the descriptive ksps to help bring the images further to life.
Gallery Example:
This next example is one of my favourite assets I made while working for the company. What I loved most about creating assets under this brand was having a little more creative freedom and being able to bring in more of an illustrative element as this is what I love doing most. I am also really proud of the retouch (I did all of the images seen here) and to really show that the product was glow in the dark I did a lot of editing to create the black and green outcomes or any of the images that are glowing.
The lifestyle of the child looking out the window is one of my favourite images I have ever created where I placed the countryside image into the window and edited the lighting for the glow to really stand out and create a really ambient night time shot. All of the glowing images had to be enhanced by hand painting over them using masks so a lot of care and attention when into these images.
I incorporated as much star shaped image framing as I could to produce the fun style assets through the wicked gizmos branding as well as being able to tie relevant details to the star design of the product itself.
I came up with the layout for the shop the range asset, this was challenging as there were many products to display in a small frame without looking too cluttered while still being able to include squiggle illustrations to fit the brand aesthetic which is where I came up with the two tone 50/50 split to help visually divide the information and create more focus where needed.
Gallery Example:
(Image.2) This involved having to take a selection of the cat from a separate image and compositing him into the bed as this is the product angle amazon requires as the header images (the first ones you see on a listing).
All of the text was used to interact with the focus of the product in one way or another hence why the text tends to wrap around the subject and the additional taglines in the fun text is shaped around the product where possible to create that happy go lucky care free brand narrative.
My illustration of the cat on the bed was used to bring in the new visual style we incorporated with the brand refresh.
I also created the layout for the assets showing how the bed folds down in different stages while incorporating a close up of the fleece material.
Amazon A+ Example:
The hardest part about making these assets (particularly under this brand) is having the product sit on a solid coloured background especially as some of the colours are so rich and vibrant. I tried applying the desired colour into the original psd files but especially with the pink, the colours weren't translating over completely accurately so I ended up having to make very accurate outlines of the product in photoshop, saving this as a work path and then selecting this in indesign through the clipping path feature. The only issue with this though was that the path would not always translate into indesign as accurately and would be wobbly in places showing small white areas where the path had gone funky. This meant having to go in with the white arrow tool and adjusting this by hand to get the clean cut we were looking for.
I really like the new branding for Hillington, seeing it all together looks really slick and professional. Where I could I tried to show off features of the less glamorous products such as this dehumidifier by choosing templates that would compliment the product shot. For example, choosing a long narrow template for the "dry and reuse" ksp, it complimented the product best and allowed me to zoom in on the product as much as possible.
Gallery Example:
This asset example is proof that no matter how boring/mundane or un-glamorous a product can be, if it has good branding it can still look attractive. Never did I think I would be building assets for a camping toilet but here we are!
Again, this had similar issues to the previous example where the clipping mask was fiddly to work with.
Amazon A+ Example:
SPLASH! assets are also really fun to create as they are so colourful but can also be tricky similarly to Hillington were the products sit on solid coloured backgrounds. These assets took a little bit of pre-planning as this is a transparent product. I had to save the PSD with the desired background colour in that file to maintain the true colours of the coloured cups inside the lilo.
The additional items dotted around are actually stock imagery where the backgrounds have been removed and then placed as PNGS in the indesign file. Small edits are made to them here and there so they really look like they are part of one image. For example in the last "suitcase ready" asset, I put the beach ball in photoshop and gave the bottom a slight blue hue as if the pool water was really reflecting against the surface material. Each of these additional images are scaled in perspective with the shots being used to bring the beach scene to life instead of looking like a randomly assorted scrapbook.
Amazon A+ Example:
For this years Christmas village assets we were going through a bit of a refresh to stay up to date with evolving design standards without removing the original brand aesthetic all together.
The header text was aligned to the right and we used a new cursive font to modernise the branding a little.
When it came to using factual images, I was inspired by the visual framing I had been creating for wicked gizmos and to inject a little more festivity I decided to frame the images into festive shapes such as a Christmas tree which can be seen in the "durable design" asset.
Really liked how well the images were naturally framed for the text to sit against the light green walls of the lifestyle images.
Amazon A+ Example:
This example demonstrates some of the icons I designed for this brand and I am really happy with how well they work in context.
This again was another challenge of getting the clipping path to work accurately when the products were sitting against vivid colours although the yellow was a little more forgiving.
Each of the icons were designed within specific dimensions so when they are placed in a cluster such as in the dimensions and specifications asset, they would stack well despite being oblong shapes (for example, the uniform square gift against the skewed blanket) and using the alignment tools, they were perfectly evenly spaced.
Gallery Example:
When creating assets under Fineway (particularly the gallery assets) I had to make sure that in each image the test tube shaped frame for the icons/text were coming from a different direction on each page or at least make sure they didn't look like they were flowing from one to the next. This helped to break up information and allowed me to to place information where it complimented the product image most.
