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Perfect Product Mockups and Finesse Flat Lays With Ease

Perfect Product Mockups and Finesse Flat Lays With Ease

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. The advertiser provided the content.

As longtime designers, bloggers, online business owners, content creators, and others know, eye-catching photography and imagery is an absolute must within the blogosphere and digital/social media landscape. Social media posts with images experience more engagement, and consumers are more likely to purchase online products when listed with high-quality, professional-looking photos. 

Suppose you have just started in the creative industry. Are a business owner looking to market your first product(s), or you’re intellectually curious — it’s often difficult to know where to begin. This article gives an overview of product mockups and flat lay photos, including what they are and why they’re essential, alongside practical tips and tricks sure to benefit beginners and experts alike.

Product Mockups: The Low Down

Product mockups are a vital part of any marketing arsenal, but especially when you need to present an example of your final product to investors and consumers or do this on behalf of someone else. Mockups are full-scale models of a design, product, device, or application. They are used as prototypes to attract prospective investors or to show consumers how they can use a product within their daily lives.

In the world of E-commerce, digital mockups are commonplace because consumers are more likely to purchase from you when they can see your product in action within a broader context. For example, if you sell bespoke phone wallpapers via Etsy, they are significantly more likely to sell when product photos show a person using their phone with your design featured in a real-life setting.

You can create these scenes or mock-ups from scratch. While this is fun, they are super time-consuming and can require specialized equipment. Luckily, pre-made alternatives are available to purchase that allow you to superimpose your design onto a product with minimal fuss.

Where To Find the Best Premade Product Mockups

Design Bundles online mock ups have a massive range of pre-made scenes and product examples on offer. Designers have styled the photos with selling your products in mind; they are user-friendly and fantastic for creating a professional brand image.

Whether you want to see how your design would look on a t-shirt before sending it to print or need to present your latest Christmas bauble design to consumers in a real-life setting, Design Bundles can help. You can also apply your designs to other popular product mockups like mugs, hoodies, tote bags, art prints, pillows, phone cases, takeaway packaging, and more.

Let’s revisit the t-shirt example. Using a pre-made mockup, you can overlay your design digitally onto different color t-shirts, giving you a better visual idea for the final creation. This visual aid will help you decide what (if any) changes to make or how to invest your resources and time to the best effect in the future. All you need to do is choose a suitable mockup and upload your design to editing software such as Photoshop, GIMP, or a mobile app like Phonto to customize it.

Design Bundles online mock ups

Flat Lays: The Low Down

The mighty flat lay is the darling of the blogosphere and social media platforms, particularly Instagram. Even if you don’t know what a flat lay is, you’ve likely seen one in action while scrolling through your Insta feed or reading your favorite blogger’s latest post. Essentially they are photos snapped from above and feature items arranged over a flat surface.

You can include pretty much anything in one of these photos, but it’s a good idea to try and stay on brand. Individual bloggers, influencers, and businesses can be identified almost immediately by their flat lay photos’ stylization. They might include the same fairy lights, props, or particular colors in their pictures and then change the central object depending on the theme.

Barnimages – Perfect Product Mockups and Finesse Flat Lays With Ease

How To Make a Flat Lay Pop

You only have so much time to engage your audience before they move on, and eye-catching flat lay photos will keep them in your area of the internet for longer. While it’s good to experiment so that you can find out what works best for your brand, audience, and schedule, there are a few tried and tested ways to make a flat lay pop.

A light or white background is an excellent start because it helps the photo items stand out. You can use white/light cardboard, paper, a table, or a sheet to achieve this. Remember, though, that the biggest clue is in the name — a flat surface is critical.

Social scrollers and blog enthusiasts respond best to aesthetically pleasing photos. Experiment with your objects’ layout and consider where you want the viewers’ attention to land. If this is entirely new to you, investigate some photography composition theories like the rule of thirds or the golden ratio.

Lighting is also essential. Don’t worry, though; fancy light equipment isn’t mandatory as natural light works incredibly well. Try to get as close to a fair source of natural light (a window, for example) as you can. If you plan bulk blog/social media content or product releases ahead of time, try to schedule flat lay photoshoots in the spring or summer.

Where To Find the Best Customizable Flat Lays

If photography isn’t your jam, or you are short on time, good news! As with product mockups, you can also find affordable pre-made flat lay designs. What you might spend from your advertising budget, you will regain tenfold in terms of time. Design Bundles comes to the rescue again with their collection of mockup scene creators, and with up to 96% off the RRP, these design elements will save you time AND money.

The scene creator kits include various elements to create multiple flat lay images with a single download. Every scene is customizable, so you can make it brand specific in no time at all just by dragging and dropping elements into your flat lay. The designs also include shadows that appear realistic, no matter where you place an image.

Here’s a top tip: They offer a fantastic range of customizable themed scenes for different seasons or occasions, including Christmas, Fall, Summer, Halloween, New Year, Birthdays, and more.

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