Product Catalogs

Making a Monster (of a Catalog)…

While working as the Art Director of both a wholesale and a retail company, my primary responsibility was to conceptualize, design, and create product catalogs, for the wholesale company. 

Throughout my tenure of seven years in the position of Art Director, I created and produced eight product catalogs, and eight additional sixteen-page supplement catalogs, including my major accomplishment, a 442 page catalog. 

This was a project that I continuously worked on for over sixteen months.  Additional daily responsibilities for the wholesale company included creating magazine ads, product photography.   Daily responsibilities for the retail company included creating newspaper ads, internet ads, as well as any additional advertising, and promotional projects.

I served as the lead project designer and Art Director, to create multiple product catalogs, while multitasking several advertising projects, to meet publishing deadlines. 

I worked closely with the business owner, and members of the sales, purchasing, and warehouse staff.  This collaboration of departments, provided me with all of the necessary products, pricing, spreadsheets and information needed to properly organize every individual product.

I utilized my customer service skills when meeting with product vendors, to determine the availability and variety of their products, to be included in multiple product catalogs and advertising.

As I added product images to the page layouts, I grouped the product images together, using Adobe InDesign, or Adobe Photoshop.  This method allowed for specific groups of products to be easily transferred to the next catalog or advertisement.  This process allowed me to create multiple projects at the same time.

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Product Photography

18,349 Product Photos by Kevin M. Kubiak

I also specialize in high-volume product photography and personally photographed over 5000 individual products for this book.  These product photos were taken with my own personal Nikon Digital SLR camera system and studio lighting.

Each image was edited with Adobe Photoshop, using the Wacom Bamboo digital pen and graphic tablet.  The digital stylus increased productivity when editing and removing the background of product images. 

As Art Director, I requested physical product samples (including all colors and varieties) of every product, to photograph multiple-angle, high-resolution images of each product. 

I unpackaged and handled every product, then set each one up in my studio/office, and began the process of taking multiple photographs of every product.

Each product image was labeled with product number and item name, then added to the proper folder.  My method of image management created an image library, with hundreds of folders, with images of every product the company offered.  The image library was added to the company network, and shared with the sales department and warehouse staff to assist in searching and identifying specific products.

I insisted on using my own images to include in every publication, and chose not to rely on standard vendor images.  Most of the company’s competition used the same low-resolution vendor images in their catalogs, which resulted in near-identical books, and made it difficult for them to stand out among other wholesale companies. 

My goal was to create a unique product catalog, using my custom high-resolution product photos.  To increase the uniqueness of my work, I created catalog pages with dark backgrounds, while avoiding the standard white background pages of the competition.  This contrast increased the presence of each product, as they would immediately stand-out, and be seen by the customer.  Additionally, I chose mostly white or yellow text, to increase readability, and to complement each item.  My unique approach was successful, resulting in an immediate company growth, resulting from the distribution of the 442-page catalog, to thousands of retail store owners around the country.

At the time of publication, the 2013-2014  442-page Catalog was the largest product catalog in the industry.  This book was over one-hundred and twenty pages more than the competition.

This book was very well received by the owner of the company, who thanked me for my dedication to this project, and said the 442-page Catalog is “my masterpiece”.  As an additional thank you, the owner awarded me with a bonus, and company-paid two week vacation for two, to any destination of my choice.

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Product Catalogs

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16 page Catalogs

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442 page Product Catalog Promotional Art

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