Alright, so I was working on this thing, needed some really clean shots, you know, “Fendi models” – not the people, but the products. Bags, accessories, the whole lot. For a concept I was developing. Seemed simple enough at first, right? Just grab some high-quality images or maybe even some basic 3D representations if I got lucky.
Well, that’s where the fun began. You’d think a massive brand like Fendi would have a decent public asset library or something for creatives. Nope. Or if they do, it’s locked down tighter than Fort Knox. My initial searches just turned up a load of retail site images, often not high-res enough, or editorial shots with busy backgrounds. Not exactly what I needed for clean, isolated ‘models’.
So, I had to get my hands dirty. My process basically went something like this:
- First up, official channels. Scoured the Fendi website, obviously. The product photography is beautiful, no doubt. But try saving those images in a way that’s useful for design work. Often, they’re embedded in a way that makes them tricky to grab cleanly, or the resolution just isn’t there when you zoom in for detail.
- Then, I tried the usual stock image suspects. You find some, but they’re mostly editorial, meaning models wearing the items, which wasn’t the “product model” I was after. Or they were just… not quite right. Pricey too, for what they were.
- Looked into 3D. I thought, “Hey, maybe there are some decent 3D models out there people have made?” Found a few, but the quality was all over the place. Nothing that screamed “official” or even “high quality replica” for the most part. Creating one from scratch? For a Fendi Baguette? That’s a whole other skillset and time commitment I wasn’t about to dive into for this particular project. I know my limits.
- So, back to images. I spent a good chunk of time trying to meticulously cut out items from the best lifestyle shots I could find. Hours in Photoshop, fiddling with the pen tool, refining edges. It’s tedious work, let me tell you. You do get something usable, but it’s never as perfect as a proper studio shot on a clean background.
What did I end up with? A collection of painstakingly sourced and edited images. Some were decent, others were… compromises. I had to adjust my concept a bit to work with what I could realistically get or create. It wasn’t the pristine set of “Fendi models” I’d initially envisioned, but it was workable.
It’s funny, isn’t it? You see these polished campaigns and perfectly presented products online, and you just assume the base assets are easily accessible somewhere. But for us regular folks trying to do creative projects, even for something as iconic as Fendi, getting those clean “models” is a real grind. It’s a good reminder that behind every slick image, there’s often a whole lot of gatekeeping or just plain old hard work to get the assets in the first place. Taught me a bit about managing expectations when it comes to big brand visuals, that’s for sure.
