Consumer and retail
A founder-led launch built for a retail shelf and a phone screen
Four products, one founder, and a retail listing that arrived earlier than planned. We built the visual language and the launch library in five weeks, working to the retailer's asset spec rather than around it.
- Client
- An independent UAE skincare brand
- Sector
- Consumer and retail
- Location
- Dubai, UAE
- Engagement
- Five weeks, compressed
- Year
- 2025
The brief
The founder had good packaging and no visual system. Every photograph so far had been taken by a different person, so the brand read as four separate products rather than one range.
A regional retailer confirmed a listing with a hard asset deadline five weeks out, including a strict spec: white-background cutouts, fixed crops, and a per-SKU file naming convention.
What we did
Approach
- 01
Decide
A direction sprint that fixed a small number of rules — one light direction, one surface family, one shadow behaviour — so anything shot later would still belong to the same range.
- 02
Split the shoot
One studio day divided in two: compliant retailer cutouts in the morning, brand-owned still life and texture in the afternoon, from the same product set and the same setup.
- 03
Deliver to spec
Retailer assets exported to their exact crop, colour and naming requirements, checked against the spec sheet before submission rather than after rejection.
- 04
Keep going
A light monthly retainer so the founder had new frames each month for launch, ramadan trading and the second product drop, without booking a shoot each time.
One setup, two outputs: retailer cutouts and brand still life. 
Crops checked at size for shelf, web and paid social. 
The retainer runs to a published monthly rhythm.
“The rules were the useful part. I can brief anyone now and still get pictures that look like us.”
Delivered
What the client received.
- Visual direction rules covering light, surface and shadow
- Retailer-compliant cutouts for four SKUs, spec-checked
- Brand still life and texture library
- Paid social and e-commerce crops in seven ratios
- Monthly retainer: one shoot block and one content drop per month
Outcomes
What changed afterwards.
Accepted first submission
The retailer approved the asset pack without a resubmission round, which protected the listing date.
The range reads as one range
All four products now sit in the same light and surface world, so new SKUs can be added without reshooting the existing line.
No emergency shoots
The retainer replaced the previous pattern of last-minute freelance bookings before every trading moment.
Second drop pre-planned
The follow-up product launch was scheduled into the retainer calendar three months ahead, at a known cost.
Disciplines
Art direction · Still life · E-commerce assets · Retainer
Credits
- Art direction and photography: Fiveyards Media
- Retouch: Fiveyards Media
- Set and surfaces: studio-built
Client names on this page are withheld. Fiveyards Media publishes a client name, logo or finished campaign asset only where a written release exists. The briefs, scope, process and outcomes described below are drawn from real studio engagements; identifying detail has been removed and imagery is studio and reference photography rather than released client artwork. Full case files, including named clients and finished work, are shown in a private review under mutual NDA.
