Strategic Design for Brands Ready to Grow

Neographic Media is a creative studio specializing in brand identity, print design, web development, and digital marketing materials. We curate thoughtful visuals that drive engagement, build trust, and connect brands with their audiences across platforms.

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Category: Photography

Collections explore of photography principles and editing styles. Read about the thought-process behind final compositions.

  • Jitters Café Social Media Strategy & Content Plan

    Jitters Café Social Media Strategy & Content Plan

    Background

    This project focused on developing a social media content plan for Jitters Café, a local favorite known for its small, cozy space and quality coffee. The assignment required creating 2 Facebook posts, 2 stories, and 2 reels to enhance the café’s social media presence and attract nearby high school students. Since the campaign takes place during the summer, while school is out of session, the content highlights refreshing seasonal drinks and light bites that appeal to students and families enjoying their break, positioning Jitters as a go-to spot for a quick, energizing stop before summer activities.

    About the Client

    Jitters Café is a family-owned coffee shop founded by Rhode Island locals Ray and Sue Osbrey in 1997. What began as a neighborhood spot for good coffee has grown into a beloved eatery offering breakfast, lunch, and baked goods. Competing in the Rhode Island café scene, Jitters stands out for its community-first approach and loyal multigenerational following. With a second location added in 2022 and recognition in Rhode Island Monthly’s Best of RI Readers Poll, the café continues to balance its cozy, familiar charm with an evolving menu that appeals to both long-time patrons and new visitors alike.

    Their Challenge

    After speaking with co-owner Ray Osbrey, it became clear that the challenge was not about reinventing Jitters, but rather about growing its overall reach. He wanted to appeal to younger audiences, like the local high school crowd, without alienating the loyal customers who have made Jitters a community favorite for decades. While its multigenerational following remains central to the brand, the café’s social media presence, particularly on Facebook and Instagram, offers a valuable way to reach new audiences and stay connected with the community.

    This map demonstrates the proximity that Jitters has to the local high school, highlighting its students as the target audience

    Our Solution

    With the café’s summer goals in mind, we developed a small campaign of social content to highlight Jitters Café’s seasonal offerings and ease the challenges of managing social media as a small business. Over the course of two weeks, our team produced two Facebook posts, two stories, and two reels, capturing original photography and video on site and doing post-production using Canva, Lightroom, and Premiere.

    To address the challenge of appealing to the local high school while staying true to Jitters’ loyal customer base, we began by analyzing the café’s existing social media presence. This helped us understand what resonated most with their current audience and ensured any new content aligned with their established brand personality. We found that their posts often featured bright, lifestyle-oriented photography with little to no text. We concluded that an approachable, down-to-earth style that we aimed to carry forward into the new campaign.

    Facebook Posts

    The Açaí Bowl Facebook post highlights a refreshing summer menu item, most popular among young children, teenagers, college students, and millennials. The post itself includes branded visuals such as the Jitters logo, while the caption prompts viewers to comment with their favorite bowl toppings. This not only builds awareness for the seasonal offering, but it also opens the door for casual community-driven conversation around their menu.

    On the other hand, the “What’s in Your Cup?” Facebook post, is geared more towards creating user-generated content. Posting on social media can easily fall to the bottom of the list when a small team is busy running a café, but inviting customers to share their drinks (and tag the café) is a simple way to help lighten that load. This approach not only builds engagement but also gives Jitters a stream of real, authentic content to potentially reshare. These images can also be repurposed across platforms or used to fill in gaps during slower production weeks.

    Instagram Stories

    Stories are meant to be quick, and users often swipe through them without much pause, so our goal was to combine simple yet engaging visuals with bids for user engagement. One story includes a poll asking followers to choose between two popular summer items: açaí bowls and refreshers. Beyond quick votes and engagement, the poll also offers Jitters insight into customer preferences, which could help guide future product promotion. There is also a location tag on the story so viewers know exactly where to get these delicious options.

    The second story features a brief clip of an espresso machine with a heart-eye emoji slider. This is a nod to Jitters’ core coffee-drinking audience and grants viewers the opportunity to engage using the heart-eyes slider. Ultimately, we wanted these designs to be polished yet easy to replicate or update as needed.

    Capturing the café’s inviting atmosphere from a customer point of view
    A quick look at their lunch offerings, showing it is more than just a morning stop

    Instagram Reels

    We also created two Instagram Reels to showcase both the customer experience and the behind-the-scenes side of the café. The “Café Vibes” Reel appeal to the viewer’s emotions by capturing the feeling of visiting your favorite coffee shop. It was curated to evoke either nostalgia or FOMO, encouraging viewers to come visit. We made a point to showcase the outdoor seating area, since indoor space is limited, and summer weather makes the patio more appealing.

    The second Reel focuses on the lunch menu and serves as a launch point for a possible content series, perfect for content planning. Showcasing various menu items will bring awareness to Jitters as more than a coffee shop. Jitters can also adapt this format to highlight other menu items for future reels on wraps, smoothies, sandwiches, or specialty drinks. Both reels also feature music from Instagram’s list of the 50 trending audios at the time of creation. This allows the reel to be boosted through Instagram’s algorithm and improve its overall reach.

    Final Reflections

    Collaborating directly with the owner offered valuable insight into how small businesses balance creativity with limited time and resources. By establishing a few go-to camera angles and keeping things short and simple, the café can efficiently capture content without affecting their daily routine. Overall, this experience demonstrated how social media solutions work best when they are both visually engaging and sustainable for businesses.

  • Black & White Form Photography

    Black & White Form Photography

    Introduction

    Form is a powerful photography technique used to capture depth in 2D media. Mastery of light, shadow, texture, and tone can enhance the 3D quality of a photograph, resulting in images that appear almost tactile. Ultimately, these elements are crucial to producing successful black and white photography. By stripping color distractions from an image, the tonal range is completely exposed, which can make or break the final result. The key to achieving form in black and white photography is to introduce the viewer to the fullest tonal range, meaning the purest of whites, deepest of blacks, and a complete scale of grays in between.

    Our Process

    The first step is to decide on a subject. To someone just starting out, we suggest keeping it simple with a white subject against a black background. Limiting color minimizes distractions and reveals the necessary tonal values to accomplish depth in the final shot. Now that we have our subject, it is time to consider lighting.

    First, decide if you want to use studio or natural lighting. While studio lights can be easier to manipulate in order to achieve the desired effect, there are also ways to play with natural light sources. Either way, it is important to avoid harsh lighting during shooting (this will be nearly impossible to edit later). Subtle tonal gradation from soft lighting showcases the light and shadow necessary to breathe life into the image.

    How to Make an Origami Swan:

    For the subject, we decided on an origami swan out of white paper. Below is the exact YouTube tutorial from Origami Kiyoshi:

    screenshot of camera gallery with raw CR2 swan photos
    Series of photos from the shoot before the final edit

    Here, we have a series of images taken as part of our shoot. For this particular photograph, we did not have access to the studio, so we decided to leverage indirect natural lighting. At first the lighting was too harsh, so to soften the light casted onto the subject, we used a white piece of paper as a bounce card.

    Note how all the photos were taken from an angle. This is completely intentional. When capturing form, it is important to capture multiple angles of your subject in one image. This way, the subject shows up as three-dimensional and the image takes on the quality of depth. Otherwise, the resulting photograph may fall flat. Be sure to explore your subject, experiment with different angles, and take a lot of photos.

    The Result

    The final photograph utilizes composition, tonal gradation, and a shallow depth of field to create dimension. Combined, all these techniques create depth, which is essential to capturing form. Of course, editing took place during post-production to develop bright whites, deep shadows, rich blacks, and endless shades of grey in between.

    The subject practically pops off of the background. It appears as though the viewer could reach into the photo, achieving that tactile quality. Another characteristic we want to draw attention to is the exaggerated scale of the subject. The subject itself is minuscule in size; however, the final photo grants this rather small object and grand, majestic sense of proportion.

    original black-and-white origami swan form photograph before editing
    final black-and-white origami swan form photograph
    The final image before and after post production

    Final Conclusions

    Exploring form in black and white photography required specific focus on tone above all else. Using Adobe Lightroom to fine-tune exposure and shadow details, we were able to allow the subject’s structure to take center stage. This project deepened my awareness of how small changes in light, tone, and perspective can dramatically impact photography.

    While form may seem abstract and difficult to grasp at first, it is ultimately what gives an image depth and visual impact. Through proficiency of light, shadow, and texture, photographers can bring a sense of life to otherwise ordinary subjects. With continued practice, these principles can become intuitive, guiding creative decisions long after the lesson ends. Mastering form takes patience, but it is also where imagination thrives.