SillySanta, a Scandinavian brand specializing in high-quality clothing and accessories with creative and licensed designs, has entrusted us with creating visual materials that showcase the quality of their products, capture their family-friendly, playful spirit, and drive sales!
Their product range is remarkably diverse and has grown significantly since we began working together years ago. Each season brings the chance to capture an array of items – from cheerful Christmas sweaters to pet clothing and accessories, and even beach towels.
Although we truly enjoy this diversity and the brand’s playful vibe, it come with certain requirements: flawless consistency across the product range and from season to season. Here are some of the key challenges we were excited to handle!
Due to the broad scope of product categories, each SKU requires a unique, tailored photography package. During every session, we execute multiple „schemes” of photography, varying in angles, framing, and techniques. For a standard product studio working on a production line, this would be a significant challenge.
However, we have developed a workflow that allows us to diversify photography schemes for each product without any compromise on quality or efficiency. In addition to standard e-commerce shooting day, we shoot also additional images with banner potential for marketing use. These required varied lighting, equipment, and styling, often involving not only regular models but also kids and animals.
As if that weren’t enough, we also shoot videos for each product during these sessions. We’ve refined a workflow that balances efficiency (measured in SKUs photographed per day) with impeccable quality. This approach reduces production costs; particularly for studio time, crew, and models calculated on a „daily basis”; while ensuring that every visual meets the highest standards.
CONSISTENCY
One of the critical tasks was achieving perfect color consistency between model shots and packshots, and – ideally – videos as well.
This was particularly challenging due to different lighting setups: flash for photography and continuous lighting for video, especially since the files undergo entirely different post-production processes.
We understand how consistent visuals build trust and influence purchasing decisions, so ensuring product colors remain as close to their real-life tones as possible is our priority. We hope these results speak for themselves:
PROPS & SET DESIGN
SillySanta’s playful and humorous designs often require props and scenes that align with the content of their prints, tailored for local markets. Sometimes, these items were unavailable locally or needed to obscure specific brands while remaining recognizable.
Our team transformed these challenges into creative opportunities. We painted bottle caps with metallic paint, sourced props internationally, and and even purchased a specially shaped waffle maker to create traditional Scandinavian-style waffles for the shoot, ensuring they perfectly matched the local tradition, reflected in the product patterns.
We transported discontinued furniture for specific setups, decorated a Christmas tree in the middle of summer, and organized beer mugs within an hour to match a sweater’s print. Providing the best possible visual outcome is non-negotiable for us, especially for clients like Sillysanta who appreciate and value attention to every detail.
THE CUTTIEST CHALLENGE: „PET COUTURE”
SillySanta’s pet clothing line allowed us to work with some of the most demanding models: cats and dogs. We patiently approached this challenge, ensuring no animals were stressed or harmed on set.
With a rigorous casting process, capturing cheerful expressions from feline models wearing turtleneck sweaters in summer was a piece of cake… (rather a hard-to-bite one, like Cantucci :D). A little help from our great post-process team was a game-changer, though.
Some details like „better-positioned paws” were transformed to „better-captured patterns” frames – so-called „Frankencats” & „Frankedogs” below showcase this dedication! We’re looking forward to SillySanta’s collection expand to include new species of pets in the future :D!
Years of collaboration, ongoing project opportunities, and the steady expansion of SillySanta’s assignments are the highest recognition we could receive.
Each subsequent project entrusted to us by Sillysanta proves that the visuals we create meet the Clients’ expectations and deliver the desired results.
We look forward to continuing this partnership, helping SillySanta grow and contributing to their ongoing success with every project we undertake together.
M. and her team at IMAGA are always a pleasure to work with. Their attention to detail gives us complete confidence that the results will be top-notch every time. We’ve been working with IMAGA since 2019 and keep coming back year after year!
