client

The Popcorn Factory

Role

Art Director

The Popcorn Factory and 88 Brand Partners began their collaboration in mid-2014. I was hired in August 2014 primarily as the designer to support The Popcorn Factory projects, then was promoted to lead Art Director on the client in February 2015. During my time at the helm, I pioneered the development of an updated look and feel for the client's seasonal product catalogs in the hopes of elevating the brand to make it top-of-mind for individual consumers and businesses seeking a premium food gifting brand.

1 // Familiarizing ourselves with the current popcorn factory catalog

When we secured the Popcorn Factory’s catalog work, we realized there was a lot of room for improvement – particularly when it came to photography, styling, and layout. While the books were selling popcorn, we knew that they could work harder for sales if we improved their product presentation and overall aesthetic. The images below (*) show the books as we inherited them – and the first few books we designed while we made baby steps toward our end goal.

2 // preparing for the process

A major part of my role for this brand was the organization and art direction of several extended photo shoots, at which I was responsible for art directing and coordinating the photography of seasonal and year-round products for both the printed catalogs and the web. During these shoots, I coordinated and managed a team consisting of a photographer, photographic retoucher, food stylist, prop stylist and graphic designer. To keep all parties on the same page, I prepared a master document, complete with sketches, styling notes, retouching notes, and guidelines for photography.

3 // updating the photography & styling

When I inherited the lead Art Director role, I was determined to update the photography to make it simpler, cleaner, and ultimately increase the sophistication of the brand. I pushed the client toward full-page beauty shots, environmental elements, tighter crops, more standardized arrangements, and dramatic lighting to elevate the brand image.

4 // Developing the new catalog layout

In accordance with the image refresh, the design needed a bit of a boost – for efficiency as well as visual appeal. I started by selecting a new typeface combination to refresh the typography we had previously inherited from the client’s old catalog design team. I continued the process by cleaning up the styling of the product copy, standardizing the catalog color palette, introducing new visual cues, refreshing the layout for the order form page, and introducing a “yum” flavor profile spread.