You may have noticed a trend: presenting designs on mockups so realistic that people think they are looking at a photo of the finished print.
Mockups are excellent tools for communicating ideas — a good design simply looks better when it is shown in action. They help sell a concept and engage the people on your team, or your clients, who can’t easily picture how a design will work once it is printed.
Like a 3D rendering of an architectural design, a mockup is a 3D image of a product. Many are built from photographs of blank objects — a brochure, a magazine, a business card — with design layers added on top. Others are 3D objects created from scratch.
On one project, we needed to present a quick concept for a new development in Panama. We laid out imagery we had already created for the client — renderings and 3D floor plans — along with some simple copy and a 2D map drawn in Illustrator. Once we had a flat design concept, we saved it as images and dropped it into a blank brochure mockup in Photoshop. In just a few hours we had a series of images that represented the printed brochure. The client’s reaction was immediate: everyone understood the idea, and it was a go.
To discuss a project, write to hello@orbisdesign.group.