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Head on fire


chrisdesign

chrisdesign

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A photographer I know for some years got this job from a publishing house to realize a cover for a new cook book with "hot and spicy" recipes. It was his idea with the fire on the cooks head, which I think is very good. So he took the foto of a cook and started with PS to put the cook on a green BG (green color was suggestion from the customer) and added a fire to his head. He then made his presentation to the customer. They liked his idea and his foto, but refused the quality of his PS composition. This is the moment where I came into the picture. I found a fire image but had to form it to my liking and to fit the cooks head. This was more timeconsuming than the actual Photoshop job. My image is definitely better, but does it meet the customer's expectation now? Wait and see.

In the meantime you could substitute the customer and critique is desired.

Cover Design 01.1200.jpg

A CoverChris1200.jpg

Agni1.jpg
 
Hi Chris -

I realize that discussion of the concept itself is not the point of this thread and much too late, but FWIW, my 1st reaction on seeing these images was to wonder,

"If they want to get across the idea of that the food is hot/spicy, why in the world are they showing the cook as being on fire, and not flames coming from the food or the food shown as glowing red hot or spices being sprinkled on it, etc. etc.?".

I suspect that many other people seeing the images above for the 1st time would feel the same.

Were alternative concepts ever presented to an actual opinion focus group, or even some informal equivalent (as long as the voters were completely independent of the core creative team)?

Just my $0.02,

Tom
 
Thanks for your statement Tom. Your're pointing in the right direction. I know the way creative people think. The last word on this image is not spoken yet, thats for sure. I'm expecting a chain of alterations to start soon. Very good for me, I get paid for every extra hour of additional work.
 
Tom Mann said:
Hi Chris -
"If they want to get across the idea of that the food is hot/spicy, why in the world are they showing the cook as being on fire, and not flames coming from the food or the food shown as glowing red hot or spices being sprinkled on it, etc. etc.?".
Tom
Click to expand...

Burning food is stupid cliché... I think this concept is much better. Looks good and is clear enough...:-)
 
Jergon, can you cite something other than your personal opinion for your claim that burning food is a "stupid cliche"? Perhaps you have the results of a focus group on this subject, or even an opinion piece by a respected authority? What ages and gender favor one vs the other?

Tom M
 
Every time when I see advertisement for any spicy food or so (at least here in our country) i see flames (or another implication of heat) going either from the food or from the mouth of person who is eating it... I simply guess this is more original, that's all... :-)
 
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That's exactly what I suspected you would say.

For many decades, marketing experts have found that if the true goal of the project is to sell the maximum amount of product, the opinions of creatives like us (eg, graphic artists, photographers, etc.) are almost never the same as the opinions of the eventual customers of the product. People like us tend to have strong artistic opinions, have already seen a wide range of approaches and are easily bored by conventional approaches, etc. We often can't "see the forest for the trees".

Marketing experts have found that one of the best ways to see which approach will likely do better in the marketplace is to *carefully* present different design (or other) concepts to a *carefully selected* group of people from the intended demographic group and see which of several approaches they favor. The word, "carefully" is highlighted because it is extraordinarily easy to let un-intended bias creep into both the presentation or the selection of the members of the focus group.

For example, in this case, if the idea is to catch the eye of a customer browsing through books at a book store, the odd sight of flames coming from the head of the person may attract lots of curiosity seekers who have no real interest in buying a book on cooking spicy foods. OTOH, flames or glowing food will immediately be recognizable to, and attract the interest of people who might actually buy it because they are interested in this type of cooking and know what this type of conventional symbolism represents. It is almost a type of branding.

Personally, I know that I am horrible at predicting how the the general public will react to various artistic possibilities, hence my repeated suggestion that marketing studies such as focus groups need to be done.

Cheers,

Tom M
 
Well, thanks for explanation - I don't understand marketing, but it sounds logical to me.
It is sad that customers think so simply, but what can we do with it? :-(
 
Hi Jergon - Some groups of potential customers are dreadfully unsophisticated, others are the opposite and incredibly knowledgeable. It depends on the geographic area the customers come from, the gender, the education level, the income, the venue where the product is being sold, etc. One of the biggest challenges in effective marketing is to target exactly the group you want. Anyway, thanks for the chat. Stay around, show us some of your work, ask questions, answer other questions, etc.

Cheers,

Tom M
 
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