Creating Design Impact With Exploded View Photography




The exploded view image, definition and its use in design

Using exploded view photography in your design projects, especially product catalogs can dramatically enhance your designs as well as help readers understand the benefits of the product. But first, what exactly is an exploded view?

Chances are you have used a set of instructions to put together a shelf or some other gadget. Typically, instructions show an illustrated “exploded view” of the product with all of its parts and how they are assembled. However, more and more companies are incorporating exploded view photography to catch the visual attention of their readers as well as demonstrate the construction of their product or how it integrates with other products the company may offer.

For this particular article, I use the example of a retractable belt stanchion I photographed for a clients catalog, one that I designed as well. For this particular product, the client wanted to highlight the features of the product as well as demonstrate how the universal sign holder easily attaches to the top of the retractable belt stanchion. I could have certainly followed the advice of the client by just writing a paragraph explaining the product and how the sign holder attaches to the top of the product along with a product shot. However, I wanted to create some visual appeal and interest in an otherwise competitive market of retractable belt stanchions. Using white space to focus the attention of the reader onto the exploded product image was a creative way of forcing the reader to view the image.

As people, we are naturally curious about our surroundings and how things work and how they are constructed. The exploded view imagery taps into that natural curiosity and draws us to the visuals. The main focus of a marketer is to get the targeted audience to make a purchasing decision. If you design your marketing collateral to where it generates enough interest, you increase your chances of holding the viewers attention, thus the potential for brand recognition as well as making a sale. I know there’s a lot more to marketing then just creating a visually stimulating marketing piece, but the point is that as a designer/photographer, you want to create stimulating pieces that cut through the millions of messages consumers are bombarded with on a weekly basis. Hence, any style of intriguing design or photo can help do the trick, if it’s done properly that is.



When do you employ the visual aid of an exploded view photo (or illustration for that matter)?

Anytime you want to demonstrate the construction of a particular product to your target audience is a good time to utilize the exploded view. As in the case with the stanchion catalog page, showing how a product integrates with another product is also a good use of the visual method. Showing the assembly of a product as you would in a set of instructions is yet another good example of using the exploded view. However, don’t limit yourself to just the three above examples to the visual usage. Challenge yourself as a graphic designer. The next time you’re faced with a design project, ask yourself if employing an exploded view in the design would help illustrate the message as well as create visual impact.



Photographing images for an exploded view.

Whether you’re a photographer or a graphic designer who wants to create eye catching exploded view visuals, the process is easy. The best approach to photographing images is to “shoot” them individually and then “assemble” them in a photo-editing program, such as Adobe Photoshop. Below are the photographed images for the sign holder and retractable belt stanchion. I photographed these images individually in a makeshift tent with continuous lights to diffuse the lighting. You don’t need such a large tent. This particular tent was used to photograph larger chrome products and was about the only thing available to use at the time.

Once I photographed each element, I assembled the items in Photoshop and digitally created the sign. The final layout was completed in Adobe InDesign. Depending on your set-up, you may need to make some color and white balance adjustments as well as perform some clean up of the image in Photoshop.

In conclusion, if you end up creating an exploded view image, I would love for you to share. Send me a message with a link to your image or design or post a comment below.



View Images From This Shoot

2 Responses to “Creating Design Impact With Exploded View Photography”

1. Regi Aguilar says:

   February 23, 2011 at 2:07 am

   interesting approach. i’ve tried something similar in the past with one of my brochure designs. Yet, I like your approach of assembling the final shots in Photoshop rather than trying to set up the photos all at once and then take the picture.

   Reply
2. digital agency says:

   April 15, 2011 at 11:54 am

   I think this is among the most vital information for me. And i’m glad reading your article. But wanna remark on some general things, The web site style is ideal, the articles is really great : D. Good job, cheers.

   Reply