I absolutely loved working with Christine of Simply Plantz to highlight her Happy Hippie Granola Bites. These grain-free, portable little granola bites are handmade in small batches with raw, organic, GMO free ingredients and sweetened with dates and maple syrup – not processed sugars! The company logo reads “happy food, happy planet,” and they are committed to this mantra all the way down to their packaging. When deciding on the packaging for these bites, it was very important to the company that every part of it be biodegradable and compostable. You will note that these bags do NOT have any plastic windows in them! After you finish a bag of this delicious product, you can simply tear off the stickers and throw the bag into your compost pile. So. Cool.
The Challenge
While all of these ingredients in these bites are fresh and delicious, they were all in the same kind of brown, monochromatic color scheme and we wanted to find a way to bring in some pops of color to create fresh, bright, engaging images. Considering the color of your product, your brand and logo and having a good understanding of the emotions you’re trying to evoke through your business branding are all important elements when bringing in new colors to your styled scenes.
We also wanted to be sure to highlight the unique packaging. This is a hugely unique and important part of the Simply Plantz brand and showcasing their thoughtful packaging is an essential part of telling their story. We wanted to be sure that, even without the tiny plastic window to peek in side, customers could visualize what’s inside the bag simply by styling the packaging effectively.
Last but not least, we wanted to show how portable and versatile these little snacks are. Eat them on the go, crumble them up and put them in your parfait, stick them in a snack bag for your kids. However you eat granola – we wanted you to think of Simply Plantz.
The Project
In order to bring in some fresh, bright colors, I considered the bright green color of their logo and decided tying in some small, green, live plants would be an easily way to give a feeling of freshness and bring in their branding colors. From there I played around with the various ingredients included in the granola and used small bowls and props to help carry the green color throughout the varying scene. Once we were satisfied with the product and ingredients shots, we whipped up a quick and easy granola parfait where we could incorporate fresh fruits and bright colors in a way that many people tend to enjoy their granola! Adding these fresh fruits to the already bright, fresh greenery created a fun and engaging breakfast scene that still allowed the granola to be the star.
We tried a variety of different things in showcasing the packaging from pouring granola out of it to having it in the background and foreground of styled ingredients scenes. Having these different options allowed my Client to have a final set of branded images that could be used in all kinds of different ways. The simple white background, pouring photos are great for online shopping and the more styled ingredient scenes are perfect for website banners, social media and branded marketing campaigns.
The Takeaway
In the end, we photographed these little bites for about 2 hours and the Client received a final collecting of 93 images that they were then able to put to use on their website, in ads and online and have been using those same images for a few years. Finding a photographer that can help give you images that will have longevity and speak to your brand is an important part of creating content and utilizing the budget you have! Click here to see some other awesome businesses I have worked with that offer packaged goods like Grace Harbor Farms Micro Greens and Holly’s Meat Pies!
Interested in booking a session for your packaged food product!? Contact me and let’s get the conversation started!
