Portrait Artist Blog

Galindo’s Barbershop has a unique style and branding concept. When I first met with Zak at his shop, the first thing I noticed was the sleek, minimalist, strong branding. The ceiling, walls, flooring, seating, and furniture were all black. It felt like I was in an upscale, custom room. It was very different than the barbershops I’ve been in before! We discussed his business, the feeling he wants to communicate to his clients, and his overall goals. We looked at his website and I gave him some ideas on how I could help him brand himself further. Zak chose to start with providing headshots of his current barbers. He looked on my website and found a lighting scheme that he liked, and it was on me from there to create for him. He chose a high-contrast and powerful one-light look, which was consistent with his branding. We scheduled two different days to shoot (one day at each of his locations) and I got to work on my plan for the setup. I knew he had black brick walls, so I used that to my advantage, but brought along a black background just in case. Zak wanted the images to feel masculine, so I customized the lighting scheme to do just that. The results are incredible! I love that Zak’s website will be updated with headshots of his barbers that will match his branding of “sleek”, “upscale”, “minimalist”, “manly” and “clean”.