Stunning Visuals for Your Ethical Luxury Brand

Zendagi photoshoot by Peace Flag House, Ethical Luxury Branding

stunning visuals

for your ethical luxury brand is the key to aligning with your most passionate audience.

When you hear the word ‘luxury’, you might think of eating spoonfuls of caviar whilst bathing in champagne in a private jet (okay okay, we might be recalling our dream last night...).

But dreams aside, it’s important to note that luxury and what constitutes as luxurious don’t mean quite what they used to. 

These days, you don’t have to be fancy shmancy or swimming in money. Instead, luxury can mean better quality experiences - specifically, sustainable experiences that are meaningful, impactful, and express who we are.

This presents a unique opportunity for ethical companies and sustainable fashion brands. Because we offer our customers a more meaningful way to live and experience the world.

This doesn’t mean saying farewell to decadence and fine dining (because who can turn down a bite of sustainably sourced caviar and organic bubbly?). But it does mean creating a brand image that communicates the quality of experience you offer.

And the best way to do that?

With stunning visuals that capture the essence of your brand.

Here are Peace Flag House’s tried and tested methods to create a visual brand that shows your high-end customers what ethical luxury is all about.

1. Create A Moodboard IRL:

Think deeply about the experiences your brand is trying to elevate. How would you translate this into an image?

On its own, this question can be tricky, but sometimes working with material objects opens up new insights. Look for clues in your environment to uncover your brand visuals and create a real-life mood board. 

Use materials that speak your brand’s message. Compile, shift, edit, and add. Take photos. Come back to them later and look for themes in colours, patterns, and textures. 

Luxury brands are all about feel and experience. This activity also lays the groundwork for art direction on your first (or next) photo shoot -- what types of objects convey your message? Buckets of champagne? Vintage cars? Velvet pillows? French Baroque mirrors?

Arm yourself with a rich linguistic and visual library to describe your brand. This makes the next step FAR easier.

If you find you’re still struggling to narrow down your brand’s vibe, download our e-book on three unusual but proven methods to uncover your brand’s authentic vision. Click here to get access. 

Take inspiration from your surroundings to identify objects that speak to you and capture the feel of your luxurious brand

Take inspiration from your surroundings to identify objects that speak to you and capture the feel of your luxurious brand

2. Watch Out For Stereotypes.

You want to convey luxury but you don’t want to ape luxury. A photo of a model rolling in mountains of cash is an instant way to make your brand feel dated and out of touch.

Instead, get creative and think outside the box. 

Make a list of all the ways your product is luxurious. Is it the materials? The use? Do you fulfil a desire, not a need? Does it elevate one’s experience? How? Where? Does it add ease to life?

Set time aside and name exactly how your brand is luxurious. Through this exercise, you can narrow down what colours, textures, and visuals convey your brand’s specific version of luxury.

My brand’s specific version of ethical luxury means having the time to craft beautiful foods with love. I don’t have a Rolls Royce but I do have beautiful and decadent foods.

My brand’s specific version of ethical luxury means having the time to craft beautiful foods with love. I don’t have a Rolls Royce but I do have beautiful and decadent foods.



3. Create A Visual Brand Book. 

Now that you’ve captured your core ideas for your brand, create a Visual Brand Book! 

As much as we like to think of ourselves as jacks and jills of all trades, the reality is we need a team of people to support us as we grow. The purpose of a brand book is to be an easy reference guide that captures the look and feel of your brand. 

You should be able to share the book with your team of graphic designers, photographers, and other freelancers so they understand exactly what your brand is going for. 

Need a website banner to introduce your new zero waste product line? An Instagram graphic for your ethical brand giveaway? A Facebook cover photo for that carbon neutral shipping promotion you’re running this summer? 

A well designed brand book will make it easy for your team to stay consistent across all channels and deliver exactly what you need. 

In our e-book,  we lay out three unusual but favourite tools that we’ve used countless times at Peace Flag House to identify our clients’ brand visuals. You can access the e-book here.

Don’t underestimate the power of textures and colours to capture ethical luxury! Here’s a styled brand shoot we helped organize with photographer Emily Neill for zendagi.

4. Capture Your Brand With Professional Photos. 

Now that you have a Visual Brand Book to describe your brand, organize a professional photoshoot! 

Whether you plan to use photos for social media or product images for your e-commerce store, you’re going to need high quality photos. And trust us, darling, you’ll want a professional photographer to help with this. 

It can be costly upfront, but having photos that accurately capture your brand are WELL worth the investment. 

Share the photos and words you’ve come up with, plus any moodboards you’ve created, along with your Visual Brand Book. 

A professional photographer will help you gather all your thoughts and translate them into a styled shoot. That means finding the right models to convey your brand, booking a venue that exudes your brand’s vibe, and even connecting you to a stylist if you need clothing and accessories.

An image is worth a thousand words, and this is especially true for today’s high-end, ethical luxury brands.


Ready to take your brand’s visuals to the next level? We put together an exclusive guide on Three Unusual Tools For Discovering Your Brand’s Authentic Vision. Click here to get access