Yes it's Stef with an f
Product and Brand
Your visual communication hub
Welcome to my product and personal brand resource that helps small and medium businesses learn more about visual design, art, and how to present yourself and your brand. I also want this to be a source for inspiration and catalogue of inspiring designers, photographers, artists and small businesses for anyone that, like me, has a passion for entrepreneurship, art, and everything that's design (design is defined as the perfect embrace of beautiful and useful).
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I'm really interested in your views and your story. Whatever I write in my blog is obviously my take, but I'm not here to preach anything. I've always longed for exchanges with people who have different thought processes and opposite points of views: it is the way to grow and develop our ideas.
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WHO IS STEF IN SHORT
I'm Stef and I'm a branding and product photographer, videographer and digital designer based in Scotland. I've also worked on some projects in Milan, my home town, and will happily jump on a plane to photograph and showcase what makes your brand special.
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HOW I CAN HELP YOU SPECIFICALLY
Running a business on your own or with a small team is tough and often confusing. I can help you look deeper, see clearer and ultimately know better about your brand and how you communicate it. Unless we have clarity on what your brand is about, we won't be able to make a clear plan on how to communicate it.
When I started in 2011, after a Bachelor in Communication Design in Milan and a Master in 3d animation at GSA, I had a range of skills to create extraordinary visuals, but I didn't have a very clear idea about direction and brand image. Like any start-up, I had to test and adapt as I went along. I have learned a ton and developed a wealth of knowledge and skills in different areas of visual production from photography, to 3D and video in over 10 years helping businesses showcase their value in line with the brand.
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I'm good at crafting lighting and scenes to convey specific looks and moods.
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"From the get go I knew Stefania was the photographer I was looking for, She took the time to listen about the product and the needs I was after, so she knew my product and got back to me about how to best present it, great to work with, very straight forward, professional and photographs are top notch, highly recommended".
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I make people feel at ease, it comes natural to me. Plus I have developed a few approaches to make you feel confident and relaxed, getting the best out of our headshot or personal brand session in a quick and fun way.
I know when to leave space and silence for you and when to jump in and support you.
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LEARN AND GET INSPIRED
I benefit greatly from other businesses resources and my friends art.
Here is my bit for you.
My blog shares insights, tips, and stories about design, branding, and photography to help you grow your business. I believe that good design is good business and I'm passionate about helping you achieve your goals.
Contributing to your success gives me drive and purpose, as I share all I know with and among my network.
In any aspect of life,
1+1=3
so If there's even just 100 of us,
the return is multiple folds.
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PRINTS
DIGITAL DOWNLOADS
Add inspiration to your walls. A selection of my personal work available as limited edition wall art prints.
Add resources to your business.
Stock images and files to download today - some free!
Blog
You get the picture
Join our community and stay up-to-date with the latest trends, news, and tips in the world of visual design and brand photography.
CONTRIBUTORS
I host guest articles from selected experienced designers, photographers, and branding experts.
Meet our contributors:
PRODUCT PHOTOS, VIDEOS AND AR FOR BRANDS
Gain trust, raise prices, get them talking, get stockists, feature in a magazine: ultimately gain power and control over your business.
Stills
Cosmetic, luxury, home decor, bottle and tech still life: ecommerce to creative product photography.
Motion
3D and stop motion product videos, animated video production, amazon product video, brand video
Product 360 and augmented reality
Augmented experiences for increased engagement with 360 product photography and product augmented reality
YOUR BUSINESS PHOTOGRAPHER
Gain trust, raise prices, get them talking, get stockists, feature in a magazine: ultimately gain power and control over your business.
Personal Brand photoshoot
Self branding, behind the scenes, modern professional headshot
Business photoshoot and interview-style video
Modern business headshot, brand video interview, business casual portrait and video session
Company headshots and video
Executive headshots, staff pictures, corporate headshots, corporate video
I tend to attract people who value honesty, straight-forwardness and laugh as hard as they work.
If you think we'd get along, get in touch to discuss your project.
Introductory call/meeting
Ok I do amazing work (and I'm very humble), but do we like each other?
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I tend to attract people who value honesty, straight-forwardness and laugh as hard as they work.
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If you think we'd get along, book a 30 minute meet-up to find out top tips and more info about the process and experience of hiring me. Happy to meet in person If you're local!
My path to wisdom
It was a very hot summer night in 80's Milan, when I first cried out for a bit of real food. I haven't grown much in height since then, but I seem to have learned to never assume anything.
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The 80s and 90s (I know you'll agree) have been the most glorious times in history. The photographic prints from that era still bring nostalgic tears to my eyes. The streets of Milan, filled with billboards, great-looking shop windows, promotional events and tv studios - but also art exhibitions and beautiful architecture - fuelled my curiosity in image creation and visual communication. I watched MTV quite a lot - to my father's disappointment who got me to study and play classical music at Milan conservatoire. It wasn't the music though that interested me the most: I was fascinated by some of the music videos, which were often the first to present innovative ways to produce moving images and visual effects on national TV.
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Right around the supposed end of the world, I had chosen my path.
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The creative path
BACHELOR IN COMMUNICATION DESIGN I explored photography, graphic design and CGI in this very well taught degree at Politecnico di Milano. From pixels to vectors to renders, it gave me an overview and a grasp of all that is possible in visual design.
MASTER IN 3D ANIMATION AND WORK AT SIMVIS At that time I viewed photography degrees as similar to art classes, where you're left to experiment after learning the basics...mostly geared towards fine art photography. As someone who had been shooting manual for years and wanted to get into commercial photography, I chose to assist professionals in the field and purchase courses from the masters. This gave me a real insight into the trade and its specific tools and techniques. You could say I'm self-taught, but we always learn from someone or somewhere, so I'd rather say I've not followed the academic path. It turned out to be the right decision. Photography wasn't the only way of creating visually that interested me. 3D animation instead, was something I wanted to expand on after grasping the basics of 3d visualisation during my bachelor degree. I knew I wanted to leave Italy and make my life hard but exciting for a while, so I sent applications to a handful of selected universities and got in at The Glasgow School of Art (so glad I didn't end up in Lapland in hindsight haha, I wouldn't have survived the cold). The School of Simulation and Visualisation at GSA (previosuly Digital Design Studio) had me working on some research and commercial projects in the following years, while I ran my business on the side.
STARTED MY OWN BUSINESS 2012 was the year I launched my photography business. I loved shooting models test shoots and products. From basic e-commerce shots and simple portrait setups, which still require a good amount of knowledge and skills about lighting and retouching, I moved to more and more complex setups and higher quality final images. It has been more than ten years, capturing the essence of people and products!
Why not head to my blog, where I share what I've learned?
FUN FACTS ABOUT STEF
I used to play basketball in elementary school, and even got to meet Diego Meneghin, an Italian basketball star, who gifted me a mega size basketball shoe as (probably) the youngest and smallest kid who ever played basketball.
I believe being active is one of the best thing you can do, not only for your physical health, but for your mental health. I love to capture personal trainers and sportspeople in action and help them promote themselves.
Martial arts in particular have helped me so much! These days I play tennis (badly).
MTV ran one of his shows from a studio in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan city centre, and would have random people selected from the streets below to come up and launch a video. While walking around Milan's Duomo one day, I was selected as one of the possible guest VJs for the day. I never was the final choice in the end, but got to go up and see some of the show's behind the scenes. I've always loved to see what happens behind the curtains!
