Once upon a time, I aged a ghost (writer).
Repeat clients are the best, can I get an amen? Recently, I heard from a local ghost-writer who wanted to update a business card I’d made for him several years ago. Now, this is a forward-thinking guy because he wasn’t asking to change out his address or add new skills. Nope. He flat-out admitted that his photo no longer matched his person and he didn’t want people to show up to a meeting looking for a guy who was, well...no longer available.
We discussed some options and decided the best bet was to create an “art” image he could use for his cards and social media presence. We’d take a current photo (he took his own, candid shot) and then we’d play around with Photoshop filters until we found a path we’d like to explore.
Here’s a look at the five basic concepts I sent him to review.
Five very different concepts.
He liked the look of the old-fashioned, sepia tone concept. I thought it was a great choice that seamlessly integrated into his existing branding assets, so we played a bit more. Even though the piece would be stripped of color, I wanted to highlight the blue in his eyes and shirt because that is a key brand color, so we kept it but faded that color to appear like the water-colored images of the past.
The finished image.
I also added quite a bit of noise, some gradient filters, faux scratches and, would you believe...a wood-grain overlay? I know that sounds crazy but it offered a texture that replicated the old film solvents as they ran down the page when it was hung to dry.
In the end, I may have aged my client’s photo but he walked away happy with his new look.