Bringing the brand to life
After finalising the design for my tee shirt product, I was ready to bring them to life through the process of finding an appropriate, reliable shirt printing services. After a bit of research, I’ve successfully discovered local shirt printing services near me, as a result I’ve ordered plain black and white tee shirts and took them with me to the printing shop. At the printing shop I’ve had a small discussion with the owner about my needs for the creation of the shirts, I simply showed him my photoshop file of the shirt design concepts and proceeded to send him a png file of the illustrations that are intended to be printed out on the blank tee shirts. However, during this process I’ve made a last-minute change to the black tee shirt design, making the phone illustration transparent like it is on the white tee version.
Once I had my hands on the shirts, I began planning and organising a photoshoot and a promo video shoot, unveiling the brand itself. Content is one of the most crucial aspects of a clothing brand, as it’s an effective way of promoting the brand’s name for various reasons. Firstly, promo videos are a great way to unveil a product through a creative manner. Through moving image you can clearly portray a certain narrative and message that targets a specific audience and showcases a representation of the product effectively. It is proven that motion outperforms static images by 76%.
Promo videos fall under motion branding, which is proven to enhance brand recognition through visual and psychological aspects. On a visual level, it makes my brand more distinctive, grasping the audience’s attention, unveiling my brand’s products making them appealing, as a result, the audiences are more eager to acquire it, similarly to how movie trailers make audiences want to watch the full film. On a psychological level, motion branding is scientifically proven to capture the audience’s brain making them pay attention more compared to static images.
Promo video
Before filming and shooting anything, I’ve come up with a basic script for a promo video ensuring it covers the narrative and niche clearly but most importantly in a way that engages with the audience effectively, grasping their attention until the end. To elaborate on this, clothing brand promo videos usually showcase important information commonly being a release date right at the end of the video, similarly to how movie trailers unveil the release date at the end of their trailers. Therefore, it was important to create a storyline that holds the audience’s attention from start to finish. As a result, I’ve come up with a promo video in a short film style, conveying my brand’s mission. Short film styles are a great way to convey the brand’s mission and overall identity, as storylines are more likely to enhance an emotional connection between the audience and the brand, as short films can feel relatable to a certain target audience that the film is intended to be aimed at, enhancing the overall engagement.
The storyline behind the promo video showcases two friends who are meeting up, within seconds of the opening scene I attempt to highlight a problem within today’s society and Gen Z in particular. As the two friends meet up, they instantly reach out for their phones highlighting how phones have an influence on the lack of in person interactions, in which majority of the Gen Z can relate to. In the following scene one of them comes across ‘Un-Blurr’ tee shirts on their instagram which catches his attention, I then try to build suspense as his and his friend’s phones start glitching all of a sudden, causing confusion and suspense to keep the audience invested. After the created suspense, I briefly unveil the tee shirts as they fall from the sky onto the table, in which I capture using a tracking shot, as the shirts fall onto the table, using the tracking shot I proceed to zoom in on the shirt logo in order to create a transition shot, as the following shot demonstrates the camera zooming out from a close-up of the shirts logo revealing the two friends walking in their ‘Un-Blurr’ tee shirts, overall unveiling how the shirts appear on individuals in an outdoors environment. The promo video concludes with slow motion shot filmed at a low angle of one of the protagonist dropping his phone, as it hits the concrete, this particular shot conveys the brand’s meaning, in somewhat a conceptual way. As the brand itself pushes the message to essentially ‘throw the phones away’ basically encouraging people to limit their phone usage and step outside. Furthermore, as the phone hits the concrete, I incorporated a glitch effect everytime the phone struck the concrete, linking back to the earlier scene of the phones glitching. As the phone ends up dead on the ground the scene transitions into an outro screen showcasing the brand’s logo with an ‘out soon’ caption. Creating a sense of excitement for the intended target audience with a promo video that may seem relatable to them, where they can feel as being part of a community. As important as it is nailing down the narrative, choosing locations is just as important as locations play a huge role in setting the mood for a scene. One of the reasons for choosing a parking lot as one of the main locations is that it is rarely ever busy with people meaning no public will get in the way of the shots, however in terms of the narrative, the parking lot environement gives off brutalist, urban feel which matches the colour and mood of the brand’s niche. In addition, ‘Un-Blurr’ is a streetwear clothing brand, hence the parking lot environment enhances the ‘street’ vibe with concrete walls and ground.
Photoshoot
As important as a promo video is for a clothing brand, static images are still just as important in this field, as every clothing brand incorporates photoshoots of their product that is used to advertise, hugely through social media but also in website form, portraying images of the product on the brand’s shop for users to view.
Similarly to the promo video, it was important to scout appropriate locations for the photoshoot, as discussed earlier scenery sets the mood. ‘Un-Blurr’ being a streetwear clothing brand, I based majority of the photoshoot in a skatepark covered in graffiti, enhancing the streetwear niche. I’ve incorporated other locations such as the car park, for the same reason I’ve used it for the promo video, as it gives off a brutalist, urban mood that works well with brand’ personality. I’ve also attempted to incorporate nature with the brutalist, street scenery in some photos to further convey brand’s belief of connecting with the real world rather than being indulged in the digital world.
Before taking these photos, I explain to the individuals modelling the shirts what kind of mood I wanted them to set, which can be created through facial expressions and pose on top of the location and product itself. I’ve had a look at similar other streetwear clothing brand’s and their product photoshoots, as I’ve never done photography before hence some research was useful before undertaking the photoshoot. From the research that I’ve picked out, I ensured the individuals didn’t look into the camera that much, as them staring into the distance adds more realism, as if the camera is never there and instead captures their natural presence. In majority of clothing brand photoshoots, the individuals usually have a serious or a chilled out facial expression, not much smiling is seen unless a cheerful mood is being portrayed. With this photoshoot being located in a brutalist, street environment, individuals involved have a rather serious look about them to match the environment and the mood it conveys which matches the brands identity. In some cases, individuals facial expressions are hidden as the main focus in some of these images is the product itself. In addition, I’ve added the blur effect to some images, adding a slight spin blur effect on the top left image, making the background slightly distorted, matching the brand’s style which is seen through a slightly distorted blurred shadow seen on the shirts illustration. I’ve also ensured to take some close-up shots in order to capture the details of the shirts design.