Picture a taxidermy squirrel, a toy crane, and a weighing scale. It’s hard to find much in the way of similarities between these objects, but they all came together for one of Lauren Pusateri’s photoshoots, on behalf of a bank, no less. Not any bank, mind you. One that eschews the typical corporate identity of financial institutions in favor of a more neighborly persona. That bank was the Kansas City-based nbkc, which prides itself on providing customers with simple and straightforward financial solutions. If possible, they also want to make the process enjoyable, a requirement that Lauren could facilitate at least partially through her photography.
Lauren landed the gig through Native Digital, an agency that was handling a complete rebrand and website overhaul for nbkc. A large portion of the rebranding involved the creation of a new visual asset library, complete with illustrations, graphics, and still-life images. The aesthetic they were after was within the Kansas City photographer’s wheelhouse: sharp and colorful imagery utilizing negative space.
Her style would be harnessed to conceptualize common banking terms and phrases in a quirky manner, making the anxiety-inducing topic of finances much less daunting. Most importantly, the final images had to integrate seamlessly with the revamped web design.
The Creative Director at the agency had a specific look in mind for the still-life imagery and came to me for my color, precision, and creativity. This project stands out as a true collaboration between the Creative Director and my team. Sometimes as a commercial photographer and director, you’re brought a finalized concept to execute, and that’s that. But other times, you get a rough concept from clients who want to see how you would approach the concept. This project felt like the perfect mix of Native’s approach and mine.
Over multiple brainstorming sessions, Lauren and the Digital Native team worked on translating numerous phrases into viable visuals. For some financial terms, this came easily. For others, there didn’t seem to be any plausible options around. But when this was the case, the English language provided assistance via idioms and turns of phrase.
After months of planning, the shoot took place at Lauren’s Kansas City studio in West Bottoms. But even with all the planning, those early hours on set were a bit shaky.
There was some social awkwardness early on the first day because it was our first shoot with a client in-house, after the Covid restrictions, and we had all those protocols. But by lunch on the first day, we were moving and grooving.
The early jitters also disappeared once the fun began. This was a photoshoot brimming with props and toys. On top of the aforementioned squirrel, crane, and scale, other items made it to the ensemble: sharpened pencils of various sizes, geometric wooden blocks, human figurines, and model houses. Once the shoot was done, the set could have functioned as a daycare center if Lauren wished.
Props were either purchased or custom-made! Our prop stylist created a number of paper elements for this project. Dollar bills ended up being the most necessary thing to source, so most of what you see is fake money with real bills facing the camera.
It’s unsure if the fake dollar bills began circulating in the economy afterward, but Lauren’s sure about the unique nature of the assignment she completed.
Prior to this opportunity with Native Digital, my experience shooting for agencies had mostly involved prescriptive art direction. The agency would come to me with sketches and want me to execute their mock-up. This was my first agency job in which I really got in there on the ground floor, working on the creative development of the visuals.
It’s a photographer’s dream to exercise plenty of creative freedom from start to finish. These scenarios may be few and far between, so when they do come around, you might as well have fun with them.
See more of Lauren’s work on her website.
Credits:
Agency: Native Digital
Client: nbkc
Production: Grace Pritchett
Props and Styling: Haley Chaffin
Production Assistant: Odi Opole
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