We’ve all seen it, maybe even tried it. The flat lay. Those perfectly styled Instagram pics taken from the bird’s eye view. You’ve seen foodies in restaurants stand up on a chair to get the perfect image. Your friend take hours arranging the #ootd on her carpet floor. From Urban Outfitters, Margaret Zhang, and even Whole foods, every brand we know is taking its own approach to the style. It doesn’t matter what you sell or make, if you can pull it off, the flat lay works for you. Here’s why.
Beauty&Order
One might be messy, but that doesn’t stop our brains from grabbing attention to order. Psychologically, we find beauty in things simplistic. When we see something we consider beautiful, our brain engages a wide range of cognitive, emotion and memory circuits. We are also left with a feeling of satisfaction. There is no doubt why flat lay pictures with arranged products are so popular. We are almost physically trained to like it.
Anything can be arranged properly to make it look simple and attractive. Trunk club, the men’s styling service does a great job applying the order rule to it’s flat lays on Instagram. The products are fixed symmetrically, whether it’s a bowties, wallets, shoes, and even socks.
You can try pairing several products of the same kind in a picture and arrange them keeping a symmetrical line in mind. This is the best example to show different colors or styles of a same product. Play around and take several pictures of your products arranged. There is no right way, find what works best for you!
Anyone can do it
Ok, maybe getting the perfect flat lay like seems out of the league. Don’t worry, it is fairly easy to create your own! Smartphones come with great cameras and there are tons of photo editing apps to help you out. So no need to own an expensive camera or learn Photoshop anytime soon. A nice location to shoot is not even needed anymore, your home’s floor might just do the trick.
While big brands might have special shooting locations, blogger’s from all around the world are using whatever they can find near to use as a background for their flat lays. White and colored cardboard paper, wood floors, a cozy rug, bedroom sheets, and marble tabletops are some the most popular backgrounds for flat lay photography. Scout around your home or business to see what you can use.
Check out how blogger Drew Scott makes a great flat lay in this Youtube tutorial to get some inspiration.
It tells a story
What surrounds your product helps it bring it to life. Take for example Barnes and Noble. As a bookstore, posting images of a book by itself might look boring, plain and predictable. It takes a twist when the books are placed in a picnic setting. Even though Barnes and Noble doesn’t sell apples or blankets, the items help create a mood. The image looks cozy, plus it makes us want to go buy ourselves some books for our next visit to the park. Like Barnes and Noble, your Instagram pictures do not always need to be exclusively of your products.
Another popular way to tell a story of your products is by creating “collections.” The Californian brand Pacsun, is known for having a beach and surf style apparel. On it’s Instagram account, it regularly features styled collections with products you can find in their store. In the picture above, the head-to-toe outfit and accessories help us understand what kind of person would be interested in using Pacsun clothing. Just by looking at the picture, we can imagine a Pacsun guy to be someone who goes to the beach, likes to take photos, and wants to travel. Collections are great to show the essence of your brand in a single picture. If you sell a diversity of products, try pairing them in a way that reflects the story you wish to tell.
Instagram perfect
Before the Instagram update allowed you to post landscape and portrait pictures, square was the rule. Even though Instagram adopted the format as a reference to the classic Polaroids, in photography a 3:2 ratio is the most common. To get on board, brands now had to take their pictures keeping in mind how it would look on social media.
The flat lay style was the perfect solution to the Instagram square format. By using a flat lay, products could be arranged creatively to fit with the style. Products don’t need to be shown as a whole, pictures can be cropped and still look nice and appealing. We usually think that in a picture a product must be seen completely so customers can appreciate it better, but that can be left to do in your online store.
The flat lay trend is everywhere and it seems to be staying. Whether it is using an ordered flat lay, telling a story, or creating a collection, use what will convey your brand’s message the best. It really doesn’t matter what you sell or make, you can create a beautiful layout of your products. Flat lays are not exclusively for clothing. Here we saw party plates, make-up, office supplies, clothing, shoes, and even books make a use of the popular style. Do you think the flat lay works for your brand? If you take your own approach to the the flat lay please send tag us at @polsieinc on Twitter so we can recommend it as inspiration!
