Slack's still life photography represents its personality and aims to be delightful and playful. The key elements in each still life photo include brightly colored backgrounds and props, a clear focal point, and simple concepts. The Creative team oversees the development and application of Slack's photography style across all company photoshoots including webinar photoshoots, live events, and brand campaigns.
PROCESS
I had the opportunity to co-lead the art direction for several webinar photoshoots along with two other designers. The process began with the Webinars team requesting a set number of photos for the quarter. These webinar types usually range from industry-specific events to live Q&As to brand campaigns. Once the team received the list of desired photos and the webinar themes, we got to brainstorming.
Photo list with webinar themes
Brainstorm sketch with description and prop suggestion
We sketched out as many ideas as we could for each webinar theme, shared them with one another, and voted on the best ideas for each theme. Once we finalized our ideas, we worked to source props that would best fit each image. We then consolidated all our ideas and suggested props into a deck and presented it to our photographer (for the shoots I worked on, the team worked with Margeaux Walter.)
Photo sketch with prop sourcing
REMOTE ART DIRECTION
The team had to work creatively to accommodate the limitations of a remote photoshoot. (Some designers on the team wrote a detailed case study about reimagining art direction in remote environments on the Slack blog!)
Photo (pre-production)
Photo (pre-production)
Our photographer would post photos as they were being shot in our photography Slack channel. The team would then provide live feedback in channel and final approval once the image was complete.
TEAM
Senior Director of Creative : Josie Jeffries
Senior Creative Managers: Maria Gonzalez, Jennifer Tan, Rosie Bowden
Designers: Alison Jeng, Gaby Saravia, Mel Haasch, Viet Hyunh
Photographer: Margeaux Walter