The communication audit of my photography project
Background
A while ago,I had got a case to take photos of a lounge called Dragonfly in Tai Kwun, it’s a tiny bar where plays European heritage associated with the Tai Kwun complex, Designed in art nouveau style of late 19th and early 20th centuries by Ashley Sutton who created a mysterious and fairytale alike ambiance with its classic design overtones, the design of the lounge is the significant competitive advantage that differentiates it from the the other bars in Tai Kwan area, in the meanwhile the customers can have cosy and comfortable relaxation in an era of a time gone by which is partially the customer experience they value a lot.I was assigned to make some new interior photos for their promotion, in particular, for the prints of leaflets and posters since they have done some slight changes in the design.So after some discussions with my clients, we came up with the decisions on the angles, the most ideal shooting time due to the natural light from the windows, the lightings set-ups, the space rearrangements etc in order to optimise and bring out the best side of the space and make it a desirable place.
Process
The shooting day was quite smooth and my clients were pretty happy about the aesthetic outcome of the shooting, however, in the post production section, I proposed to add a butterfly and glitters on the table to enhance the fairytale mood and imagination of the space and got agreed by the client to give it a try.so when I finished the photo combinations and color adjustments, the first round of outcome shows below:
Unexpectedly, the bar manager didn’t like the extra component of the butterfly I added and the overly dark colour tone I applied on the photo, even though the style of the bar supposed to be mysterious but the presentation of the photo is a bit overly mysterious and since it’s just an interior photo without any people on it, the atmosphere may look a bit horrendous.In terms of my clients’ opinion, I reedited the photo and the final outcome was eventually accepted and shown below:
Reviews and Reflections
1,After the lesson 1 I learned the differentiation of design and art, I realised when I play the role of the creator I don’t focus enough on the process to form the plan or strategy to meet the needs from my clients and the end-users but the self-expression.
2,Their target audiences are the white collars working in central during the weekdays, and other white collars and cocktail lovers during the weekends, ages from around 25–50, if I have paid more attention to this part, I could have made a better plan in my creativity, for example, when I came up with the idea of the butterfly in the post postproduction I should realised it’s more appreciated by much younger groups of people instead of mature white collars, moreover, the creative, unique and nice looking cocktails specially designed for ladies are one of the bar’s significant attractions which I should have put on the table to replace the butterfly, set a good lighting and made a good arrangement for cocktails in the shooting instead of adding the butterfly in the post production.
3,While I processed the color adjustment, I just focus on enhancing the mood of the interior design but neglected the visual communication with the consumers and bring out the accurate information, that is related to the customer experience they value in the first place, which is the cosy and comfortable relaxation in the desirable environment rather than the feeling of being lost in a scary fairytale.
Summary
I didn’t study the lounge and their business well in advance before I had my first communication with them, otherwise I should have proposed a smarter design plan to emphasise their advantages but minimise their weakness while selected the right components in the whole process of pre production, shooting and postproduction.