With plans to relaunch their brand identity post the holiday season, the Ishimodo Agency engaged Stephen's services to create the cover image for their 2011 promotional Christmas card. The idea was to have the new brand mark encased in ice that was starting to thaw, with the internal copy reading, "looking forward to our brand refresh in early 2012". Stephen sourced a stock image O character made of ice that had the perfect feel but needed to fit the new circular shape of the brandmark. He manipulated the shape and colour to create a believable scene, carving out the ice and adding meltwater below. The result was a fresh and striking image that hinted at the changes ahead for the Ishimodo brand.
Creative Direction: Ishimodo Brand and Design Agency
Retouching: Stephen Franklin
The completed creative retouching composition with meltwater added below.
Stock image of ice in O shape.
Ice shape manipulated to the correct brandmark proportions.
Melt and melt shadows added to encased Ishimodo brandmark.
This series of images shows the build-up of the retouching for the card.
Stephen also produced the design for the final printed card.
Franklin created a follow-up image for the 2012 Ishimodo promotional Christmas card.
Stock image of goldfish in clear bauble.
Internal wires removed from stock image.
For the 2012 card Stephen started with an almost complete stock image of a goldfish in a Christmas tree bauble. He removed the distracting internal wires and shifted the gold lid to silver.
As a final change the fish’s colour was shifted towards the Ishimodo brand red.
