journal

3D Product Renders vs studio photography

We love photography. A well art directed and beautifully shot product image has the ability to help frame products squarely within their intended position in the market. But while traditional photography and video have long been an important staple of product marketing, 3D opens up a whole other world of experimentation and creativity.

TBC minute read

What happens when products evolve? Perhaps you’ve launched a new model, updated the colour range, or refined the design. Recreating the same shot from a previous campaign – or scaling up for additional content – requires organising yet another photoshoot. What about products that aren’t yet fully manufactured or those too complex to capture effectively? Perhaps internal mechanisms need visualising. This is where the limitations of traditional photography become apparent, and where 3D rendering steps in as a solution. So, what are the main considerations?

More Experimentation, More Content

While both photography and 3D need careful planning, pre-defined art direction, arrangement of lighting, scenery, and camera angles, photography – especially for more elaborate set-ups – can be complex and time-consuming. With 3D rendering, these constraints disappear. Want to experiment with bold, dramatic lighting, test out multiple camera angles, or a completely different scene altogether? It’s all possible, and in a fraction of the time and effort; you can even revisit days, weeks, months later to create new ideas.

3D also isn't one-and-done. A single 3D model can create far more than just one visual, and can be a starting point for all sorts of content: product breakdowns that highlight internal features, animations for social media, and 3D or AR experiences for eCommerce, for example. With 3D, the value of investment can be spread across multiple channels, maximising the creative, as well as the budget.

Embrace Existing CAD Models

Since most manufacturers already use CAD models for product development and manufacturing, these files are a great jumping-off point for 3D rendering. By adding materials, fine-tuning the details, and incorporating lighting and scenery, you can easily turn CAD models into high-quality, photorealistic images. This way, you don't have to start modelling products from the ground up, saving a huge amount of time and budget. Products also don't always remain unchanged – features are refined, colours are updated, and new details added. With traditional photography, making these updates can mean pricey reshoots, along with all the logistics, studio time, and re-editing that go along with it. But with 3D, designers can adjust and polish details, update materials, or even completely reimagine the product without having to start all over again.

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Whether it’s a cutaway view of a mechanical gadget or a product that's still in the concept phase, 3D rendering allows us to visualise and promote ideas that photography typically can't capture

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3D design can deliver visuals so precise that they rival – and often outshine – traditional photography. Every surface texture, reflection, and minute detail can be shaped without the potential imperfections that can plague a traditional photoshoot, such as scratches or fingerprints. That said, renders often look best and most realistic when they include subtle imperfections – with 3D, and those kind of details can be included and experimented with in the materials, without editing or affecting the models themselves.

And, when it comes to complex details some products can be tricky to photograph purely due to how they're manufactured, or their development stage. Whether it’s a cutaway view of a mechanical gadget or a product that's still in the concept phase, 3D rendering allows product companies to highlight details, internal structures, or design concepts with macro photography, in ways traditional photography typically can't capture. 

The Bottom Line

In our – admittedly biased – opinion, 3D is a no-brainer for businesses looking to create stunning, adaptable, and cost-effective visuals. With the ability to create anything from simple outdoor scenes to beautifully elaborate studio stills and animation; to experiment, adjust, revisit and adapt for multiple channels; it offers a flexibility that benefits both the creative process and budget. And given manufacturing companies can take advantage of the CAD models many of them already have, there's very few risks – and a mass of benefits – in considering 3D as an alternative to traditional photography.

Need help?

Interested in understanding how 3D product rendering might benefit your product marketing? Get in touch.

More thoughts
Brand Development

What is a Brand Sprint Workshop?

How we put the whole team on the same page before brand development begins.

TBC Minute read

Great branding can only be built on strategic clarity: knowing why you exist, who you are for, and how you want to show up. That clarity cannot be handed down from the top or left to find it's own way – it has to be built top-down, with intention. Brand sprint workshops create a space where all stakeholders are present, and the big questions get answered in real time. Often for the first time, people hear each other’s perspectives – friction can often be part of the process – debate hard truths, and resolve the differences that would otherwise resurface later. Clarity and team alignment is key, and for that reason it's how we start all our branding work at Otherfolk®.

When you're appointing stakeholders, be clear on exactly why they're there beyond an additional opinion, and what unique view they bring to the table.

Who Needs to Be There?

Your agency/studio, and key decision-makers: founders, senior leadership, marketing leads, and anyone else with a stake in the brand. If someone is missing, decisions made in the sprint risk being undone once they weigh in. That said, it's important to keep the stakeholder group small – like any project, too many voices risk pulling the project apart, and creating more noise than neccesary. So when you're appointing stakeholders, be clear on exactly why they're there beyond an additional opinion, and what unique view they bring to the table. Attendance is non-negotiable for this group – it only works if the people who will see the project through is present to avoid suprises later on. Also: no devices, no distractions.

What Happens in a Brand Sprint Workshop?

The workshop runs through a series of structured exercises over the course of approximately three hours (with breaks). Each exercise exists for a reason:

1. The Five-Year Roadmap: This forces the team to think beyond today’s targets. Where does the brand need to be in two, three, or five years? What needs to be true in order for those targets to be met? Is it the same brand, products, or something different? This exercise sets ambition and ensures the brand is built with the future in mind, not just the present quarter.

2. Why / What / How: Starting with why you exist as a business defines the brand’s reason to exist beyond revenue. What problem are you here to solve for your customers? What impact do you want to have? What do you offer? How is that delivered? Are these clear and differential?

3. Values: Every brand claims to have values. A brand sprint cuts the list down to the three that genuinely guide behaviour. This makes them usable in practice, rather than wallpaper.

4. Audiences: You can't be everything to everyone. This exercise forces prioritisation. Who are the three groups that matter most? Decisions get sharper when you are clear who you are talking to.

5. Personality: Is the brand playful or serious? Modern or classic? Bold or understated? These simple scales spark debate and create agreement on tone and style.

6. Competitive Landscape: By mapping competitors, you see not just who you are up against but also where the gaps are. It is a visual way to decide where your brand should sit, and where it shouldn't.

Each exercise pushes the team to make choices, often tough ones. The point is not to avoid disagreement but to use it productively.

Summary

A brand sprint is three hours of focus that can save three months of drift. It gives you clarity, direction, and alignment, and it does it in a way that energises teams rather than drains them. The outcome is a clear foundation for brand, design, and content that everyone has a hand in shaping. If you're kicking off brand work, there is no better way to start.

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Brand Management

Beyond the Launch: Protecting Brand Value

Understanding the pre-work and post-launch support needed when branding.

TBC Minute read

Before you dive in to creating a new brand identity, it’s worth pausing to think about what really needs to be in place for the work to succeed. A rebrand is one of the biggest investments a marketing leader will make, and the pitfalls are rarely in the creative output itself. More often, the problems come afterwards – when organisations aren’t ready to manage what’s been created. Here are some considerations before you begin.

Ownership and governance

Who will steward the brand day to day? Not at a strategic level, but in the detail. Making sure when new icons are introduced, their weights and proportions match; that photo treatments stay consistent; that “almost right” colours don’t creep into decks. Each of those things might feel close enough, but line them up against the brand you paid for and the drift is obvious. And the impact is rarely instant – it’s two years of small shifts that erode value. Brands should always evolve, and guidelines should be exactly that – guidelines – but making sure the integrity of the brand you've created remains in-tact is a full-time team job.

Brands should always evolve, and guidelines should be exactly that – guidelines – but protecting the integrity of the system is a full-time job.

Capacity

As much as you may want to have an identity that rivals your favourite brand, making sure what’s created is realistic for the team you have in place is paramount. If your internal team is small, the identity needs to be simple to manage, with assets and templates that can be applied quickly without heavy oversight. If the approach is too complex, it will quickly break down in practice. Be realistic and clear from the outset about how asset creation and updates will actually be handled, and approach the brand system accordingly.

Agency alignment

Beyond the work, is your chosen agency or studio people you can have the right conversations with? Branding involves decisions that are rarely black and white, and so clarity often comes from pushing through difficult discussions. The right fit isn’t about portfolio alone – it’s about whether you trust them to be in the room with you for those conversations.

Scope of Assets

Finally, be clear on scope. A rebrand is never just a website refresh. It reaches into email signatures, white papers, editorial grids, social templates, presentations, signage, even the way fonts are distributed internally. Each of those touchpoints has implications for time and resources. If you don’t map the full scope upfront, you risk discovering gaps mid-rollout when momentum has already slowed. Think about this upfront, and save yourself the headache later on.

Final thoughts

A rebrand lives or dies in how it is carried forward. The creative process produces the system, but it’s ownership, governance, team capacity, agency fit, and a clear view of scope that decide whether it stays intact in the years that follow. Put those things in place, and the work you invested in has the best chance of holding together and delivering value long after launch.

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