Case Study

Design

James Beaumont is an award winning male barber and male hairdresser. In 2019, James asked me to work with him on creating his portfolio entry for Creative Head's Most Wanted competition. 

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The competition needed a two part submission, a body of head shots of his best work along with a written portfolio that incorporated James' vision and his theoretical approach to his craft. 

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My task was to respect and showcase is creativity and talent, along with being a leader in all aspects of hairdressing.

From Sketches to Finals

James and I worked on this project entirely remotely. Initially we began with detailed conversations about his vision, his life growing up and his journey towards male hairdressing, along with his passions and view of the hairdressing industry. These conversations really helped me to get an idea of who James was as a person and what he was trying to achieve. 

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To begin with I started by researching the competition for the Most Wanted category he was competing for to identify their strengths and brand DNA. I made a few notes from my observations and began sketching on paper some basic ideas of how I wanted the portfolio to flow.

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James already had a strong branding coupled with very powerful creative photography. His male models showcased a rawness and sophisticated appeal that I also needed to echo throughout his portfolio. We started off with a few sketches of page layouts along with suggested colours. Greys and moody blues were the main colour palette. For typography, we kept it simple with serif fonts that were timeless yet had a commanding take notice presence. We then worked on finessing the copy, making sure we told his story in both the way he wanted it to be expressed in his most authentic way, along with going back to the focus for the Most Wanted competition which was his excellence in his craft. 

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For the actual print job, we decided on silk matt lamination pages inside for an understated gloss, coupled with a matt velvet lamination cover to add a uniqueness to the texture.