Discovering Your Visual Aesthetic
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By Eden Hensley; Photos by Brooke Dennis for Alt Summit
Developing a consistent aesthetic across your social media platforms can be tough. Especially when you're not sure of your visual brand. In her Photoshoot: from Start to Finish design camp at Alt Summer, Candice Borup Stringham of Handmade Mood recommended the Five Minute Flip as a way to discover what grabs you visually (and this changes over time).
- Gather a stack of magazines that you currently read and would be ok with tearing up (I purchased two copies of the magazines I was planning on using for this exercise.)
- Grab a timer and set it to five minutes.
- Tear out any image you react to strongly (Love as well as Hate). Don't analyze the photos as you go.
- When your time is up, sort into two piles: Like and Dislike. Now look at the photos for trends.
- For the next week or so, live with 20 or so of the photos in your Like pile. Hang them up on a wall in your house that you frequently pass. Each time you walk by, remove your least favorite image. When you get down to five images you'll have a better idea of what grabs you visually.
Want to Learn More About Photo Styling?
Join the Alt community on Twitter next Wednesday morning July 1st at 9 AM PST/12 PM EST for an hour-long chat about photo styling. We will be talking about why photos are important, how you can develop a voice or consistent style, and more.
