How to turn a design sketch…
…into a finished poster.
(with just a little bit of help from Photoshop!)
Caffè Nero asked Right Angle to help them to launch 2 of their NEW drinks, ‘White Chocolate Mocha’ and ‘Caramelatte’. They weren’t sure at the time, if they were going to use chocolate ‘powder’ or chocolate ‘chips’ on top of the White Chocolate Mocha, so we’d need to photograph both.
STEP 1: Design Concept
Once we were happy with our concept sketches, the fun started and we did a bit of head scratching, trying to work out the best way to plan the photo shoot. Past experience told us that food & drink photography can be a bit of a pig, as we’d have to deal with whipped cream squirting all over the place, chocolate powder, caramel and chocolate chips with a mind of their own, all under hot lights. So, we decided to split the job into sections.
STEP 2: The Photo Shoot
As the espresso coffee and steamed milk would be entirely covered by whipped cream and wouldn’t be seen, we didn’t use any at all. Instead, we cut a circle of ‘fetherlite’ board to fit into the top of the mug. This was to form a base for the whipped cream a) to save on wastage and b) to stop the cream sinking before we had chance to sprinkle on the toppings and take the photo’s.
The whipped cream and compressed gas machine caused as much fun and games as anticipated, as did the toppings, but eventually we got some great shots of the 3 different drinks.
We already had a perfect shot of the cup with the handle to the right, so we were able to turn the cups round to get the best angles for the whipped cream, as the handle would be cut off at the next stage.
We didn’t need to worry too much about the angles of the shots, either, as long as they were of a high enough resolution, that too could be fixed later at the retouching stage.
STEP 3: Photoshop Retouching
We took an oval shaped section of the best photo for each topping and placed it directly over the perfect shot of the mug, using the ‘skew’ and ‘distort’ tools until the perspective matched exactly.
Then we colour corrected the whipped cream, zoomed in extremely close and very carefully cut out each of the 3 toppings blending them onto the lips of the empty mugs.
STEP 4: Poster Design Drafts
We created a swirling Photoshop background and produced draft design options for both of the new drinks, ‘White Chocolate Mocha’ and ‘Caramelatte’
As Caffè Nero are famous for their freshly ground coffee, they thought it important to feature the coffee beans on the posters. So, we photographed the beans, cut them out and added them around the base of the mugs, as another Photoshop layer using shadows and effects to blend them in for the final draft.
STEP 5: Digital Artwork / Printing
After the A2 printed posters appeared in store… the drinks obviously tasted just as good as they looked, as they both very quickly sold out!
…what’s the magic word?
Photoshop!
