TOYSMITH
At Toysmith, we produced a 300-page catalog once a year, along with several smaller catalogs, advertisements, trade show displays and flyers. I was in charge of the photo studio, which involved managing talent, photography and photo retouching.
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I photographed the toys, packaging, kids playing with the toys, and more elaborate scenes. I averaged anywhere from 35-300 photos a day depending on the type of photos. I also color corrected and retouched all images for the catalogs and packages.
​This job provided many great learning opportunities, most importantly the importance of patience and collaboration. Working with young children who are not professional models can be utterly exhausting, but also very rewarding when the shots turn out great. This is also where I learned that everything goes much smoother, faster and easier if you just ask for help when you need it. These lessons have allowed me to form life long bonds with some amazingly creative people and given me a toolkit that I can pass along to my current employees.
Art Director: Ashley Brock
Package Designer: Page Forment Berghoffer
Photographer/retoucher: Ashley Brock
Company: Toysmith, for Costco
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Splish, Splash, we had to take a Bath!
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This was one of the most interesting and difficult shoots I have had to do. We were so excited to find out that Toysmith was going to have a product line at Costco during the holidays, so we decided to go all out!
While the shoot was fun, we had our struggles. The two children that we used in the photos had never met before the shoot, so it took awhile for them to warm up to each other. Trying to get kids this young to play with the toys exactly how you need them to, without splashing too much is virtually impossible. But the shots came out great, and we had one fantastic time!
For this project I had to secure the location, schedule the models, shoot the photographs and retouch all of the images for the packaging and advertisements.
I am happy to report, the product sold out at all Costco locations in just three days!