The Full Story
During my internship at the Guardian Art Center, I was fortunate to work on the Guardian Cultural and Creative brand at a time when it was just getting off the ground. At first, my main role was curating the art book exhibition and organizing VIP events. But because our cultural-creative team lacked both photographers and marketers, I took on extra responsibilities for online marketing and aesthetic design for the new product launches.
Our team was small, and the business models were evolving.Because of this early-stage, I had the opportunity to engage directly in core aspects of brand building. Within a single month, I photographed more than 50 new items for the online store and wrote detailed product descriptions for each. I also contributed to design updates for both the Art Poker and fragrance lines, managing their promotional photo shoots and crafting their respective marketing strategies.
Due to tight budgets and schedules, the entire photo shoot was filled with challenges.With very limited funding for the cultural-creative team, I did most of the shooting during my breaks in a vacant warehouse next to the exhibition space. I gathered whatever props were available and relied on a small set of lighting equipment, using composition and angles to realize my vision as best I could.
This project pushed me to be resourceful and inventive: learning how to produce commercial-grade images in a decidedly “non-professional” setting.
We want customers to feel the unique texture of Chinese classical painting. So we used a special textured material instead of standard glossy paper for the cards. The surface texture is somewhat similar to xuan paper, which is commonly used for Chinese calligraphy and painting.
01
Art porker
This product is our brand’s own design. We chose some of the most famous auction lots from China Guardian Auctions over the past ten years (mostly Chinese classical paintings) as the designs for each playing card. Every card shows the auction price of the corresponding artwork.
In creating and promoting this product, I worked on the concept design, took charge of setting up and shooting the promotional photos, and planned the marketing strategy.
02
Three Deities Cup
03
Candiles
04
Collections
