Blog

TL;DR

• Product imagery is shifting moving forward
• Solid renders on black = print products
• Half hologram renders on black = downloadable STLs
• There are a LOT of products to re-render so this will take some time

Previously On

At the start of the year, I instituted image standards for my two main product types. Downloadable STLs would be represented by renders on black backgrounds, and print products would be rendered on white.

This was for two main reasons:

1. Confusion between digital and physical products
2. Physical labels were using white backgrounds, in large part because I was still printing them myself then, and printing all that black would just devour toner. So it made sense to roll that over into all the imagery.

11ish Months Later…

Fast forward and the situation has changed in some key ways.

First, I’m switching packaging providers, and with that comes the opportunity to actually be thoughtful about box and label design. I’ve contracted a designer friend (no AI slop here), and when he showed me some early label mockups, the on-black options just had so much more presence than the white ones.

Second, digital STLs account for something like 1-2% of sales. That’s nowhere near sufficient for them to hold black backgrounds hostage.

Third, despite the difference between digital and print products being quite literally black and white, I still get a steady beat of people buying STLs and then wondering where their printed products are.

Physical Prints – On Black

If labels are moving to black, then it only makes sense for the product imagery to do so as well. Swapping out backgrounds gets old fast, especially when it often means having to tweak the lighting setup.

And at least to my eye, the black renders are much more appealing.

Digital STLS – Also On Black, With Holographic Element

For the STLs, I wanted to clearly signal that they are digital. A holographic-type presentation has promise, but just holographic would obscure details. So after a bit of trial and error with mix shaders in Blender, I got to a half-holo look that I think achieves what I’m after.

This Will Take Time

I currently have around 200 active product SKUs. Re-rendering all of them cannot happen overnight. And I can’t really wait and transition everything at once, because there are new products that need new labels and existing products that need more labels.

So it’s going to be a bit more of a rolling thing.

In the meantime, I’m also planning on seeing what I can do about throwing up something like a modal window that doublechecks that yes, someone is aware they are buying a digital product.