The assignment to is shoot a new product. It isn’t born yet but it has much potential. How do you brand it? How do you tell a story that connects to your target audience? How do you portray an authenticity that captivates your audience? How do you visually market a product, a story, a brand, a lifestyle, without any words?

You start with light. The soft window light of an early morning illuminates the dark stainless steel finish and casts a shadow onto the marble surface. Light crawls into the crevice of of dark spaces, highlighting the logos and showing off the sleek curves of the product. The image is light and airy.

Then you add context. Maybe this table is a nightstand. The product, still the main focus of the image, sits on the nightstand surrounded by objects that give clues as to who the owner is. She looks like she can be an avid reader. She certainly loves perfumes and scents. She looks like she could be a minimalist who chooses to invest in quality products she loves. She picks products that match her aesthetic. She’s well-read, intelligent, and sophisticated.

Or the owner might be an adventurous type. She reads and immerses herself into fiction. She brings life into her apartment with plants. And she travels, documenting the world around her with her camera. She is curious, daring, creative, kind, and patient.

Here’s one more scene that could connect this product to a different type of woman. She is no doubt stylish in every way, and, with her notebook by her side at all times, is a go-getter ladyboss. She jetsets to corporate meetings in style, unafraid to take on the world, or tune it out with music. She is an endless stream of brilliant ideas and hard-working days. She designs the life she loves.

In all honesty, I shot these photos without a concrete idea of how they would turn out. Building a lifestyle brand is an interesting challenge, and requires you to know your product and target audience extremely well. Although it was product photography, I wanted to tell a story that was lifestyle-driven and inspiring. Images can speak so much without saying a word, and I wanted the objects in these photos to tell a variety of stories. Because even one product has the potential to make its way into the lives so vastly different people, so why limit its potential?

Images shot for Ashley Chloe’s newest product, Lux, which launched October 2018.