2023 SPRING: 36: ASSIGNMENT THIRTY SIX: WOMEN'S SHOES

ASSIGNMENT: WOMEN’S SHOES FOR LOCAL BOUTIQUE

Women’s Shoes.

A consistently best selling accessory. Count the shoe ads in Vogue or Bazaar… a very high percentage. There is a love affair between consumers and shoes – and especially women’s high heels.

Assignment:

The client is an upscale boutique located in your city. They have spent the winter doing remodeling and are ready for their grand opening extravaganza. The ad campaign is “Step Into Spring” and will feature women’s high heel shoes, something they have not carried before. Part of the new rebranding is the addition of a boutique, specialty shoe area featuring some big-name designers.

They want to show off the shoes and also get people into the store for the grand re-opening. So this assignment should be eye-grabbing. Full page ad in local magazines, full-page ad in the local shopper, and mini-billboard bus signs all over the area where they are located. They will also use the images on their website, but not as a banner so the magazine vertical will work fine.

Spring:

Flowers
Sunshine
Rain
Happy clouds
White
Pastels
Bright Colors

“Step Out In Style” is what the AD sums up in the RFP for you.

It is estimated that the average woman will spend over $25,000 on shoes in her lifetime. (source)

There are several important points about shooting women’s shoes that you must remember:

1. The texture of the shoe is important to show.
2. The height of the heel is important to show.
3. The shape of the toe is important to show.
4. The insole is important for some brands.

In other words, the parts of the shoe that a customer may inspect is important to show in the photograph.

Are there wrong ways to shoot a shoe?

Yep.

For one, we do not use forced perspective, wide angle lenses to distort the shape of the shoe. You will also find very few times when we point the camera down on a shoe, as that diminishes the height of the heel.

Lighting must be even and careful to allow the texture of the leather or suede or whatever the shoe is made from to be very visible. Stones and shiny things are also important to show if they are a feature.

Art directors and product managers always have their ideas for what they want to do with their specific approach, so be sure to work with them to create the best image possible.

If you are wanting to use a model, she must not be identifiable (legs /skirt / shorts only) and should have a manicure if toes are shown.

The overall feel of the ad is “fun” and “new”… so now it is up to you to make something awesome.

VIDEO PART of the Assignment:

Whatever you do for the still shot, you must create a small video ad in Canva or Adobe Express. The video of the shoe is motion and no longer than 10 seconds.

A slide across the photo, or a static shot of the shoe with something happening with it. Perhaps you simply do a crawl zoom into the shoe or have someone holding it. If it is on location, do something to bring us to the shoes. Remember that only a few seconds of video is needed. This can be very easily accomplished if you have slow motion on your camera. Camera phones are fine to use for this.

If you build in Canva or Express, do it as a facebook post, or an Instagram. When you export it will be small enough to upload with the still images. If you are using another editor, you should make sure the file size does not exceed 25MB.

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