Branding
January 22nd, 2010
I had 2 problems that I wanted to address recently and I think I may have cured both of them with one solution. My first issue dealt with branding of photographs. Branding is a good thing when it comes to photographs if done properly. It helps people recognize your image and gives you the ability to stylize them also. What I haven’t liked in the past has been the way some branding detracts from the image itself. The watermark approach that I see so often and tried in the past, has a way of competing for the viewers attention. The second issue has been transition in cropping photos for commercial/home print versus newspaper print. I was taught that a proper crop showed the viewer only what you wanted them to see. This usually meant really nice, tight crops. Plus, newspapers only have so much space and photos get hacked up just as much as the articles. Now though, prints I do go into nice frames on peoples walls. When the images are cropped in too much, there is no room for overlapping when framing.
While I was looking through flickr the other day, I saw an interesting photo that was scanned. The scan had included the extra border stuff from the film that usually gets cut off, like the type of film and other numbers. Well, I liked the way it looked. So it got me thinking. If I made a template in photoshop, I could use it to overlay on photos to solve both problems I am trying to remedy.
Having that overlay helps keep the overhang needed for framing a print. It forces me to leave cushion. It also serves as an inoffensive way to brand my images. The branding doesn’t cover any part of the image and it’s very legible but also not loud, calling for the viewers attention. All of this is brought in to each image as a separate layer that can be turned off when needed.
Any thoughts about the execution of my solution?