Pott Starter Pack — Product Photography Concepts

Why change anything?

The current gallery uses one recipe for every frame: a styled lifestyle scene, candle lit, a second wrapped refill as a prop, and a script scent-name overlay. It's beautiful and unmistakably Pott — but two things hurt it.

What's not working

The product isn't always the hero — the Ocean shot buries the pott behind driftwood, a salt jar, a succulent and eucalyptus.
No single image actually shows what's in the box, so the contents story gets crammed into lifestyle frames.
That forces a second refill into the shot — implying you get two when you get one.

The fix

Stop making one image do two jobs. The lit hero sells the feeling; a dedicated flat-lay carries clarity.
Once a clean "what's included" frame exists, the misrepresentation disappears — and the hero is free to just be gorgeous.
Drop the per-frame scent overlay; scent already lives in the variant selector.

Current Ocean starter pack image — Current live image — atmospheric and on-brand, but the lit pott competes with four props and the overlay, and a second wrapped refill stands in for "what's included."

01Studio hero — three directions

Job · Desire — the new primary PDP image

The hero has to do two things at once: read instantly as what the product is, and celebrate that this is an artistic, handmade, colourful candle — not a clear-glass luxury lookalike. So across all four the match pott is brought forward and kept sharp (it's part of the starter pack, so it can't be buried), the cobalt glaze is the star, and each sits on a subtle riser. Clearly a studio shot, but warm rather than sterile white. The product itself is kept true to the real pott — the glaze line is even, with no invented drips.

Hero on wood tree-round — **1a · Wood tree-round.** Live-edge wood slice, subtle driftwood. Warmest and most natural — the current front-runner.

Hero on potter's wheel head — **1d · Potter's wheel head.** Sits on a cast wheel-head with throwing rings + clay dust — the maker's-craft origin made literal.

Hero on travertine pedestal — **1c · Travertine pedestal.** Gallery-object feel; makes the blue pop hardest. Most editorial.

Hero on pale stone plinth — **1b · Pale stone plinth.** Cleanest/most studio but warm; sea-salt scatter as the cue.

The match pott is now forward and sharp, and the product is kept true to the reference (the earlier hero had it blurred behind, plus an invented glaze drip). Front-runner is 1a, the wood tree-round; 1d puts it on a potter's wheel as a craft-story option. Pick a direction and it becomes the locked hero for the real shoot.

02What's included

Job · Clarity — this frame solves the confusion

Unlit, overhead, everything laid out: the empty pott, exactly one wrapped Seasalt refill, the match pott, and a loose bundle of matchsticks. No lit candle, no second refill — an honest contents manifest in its own frame, so no other image has to fake it.

03Lifestyle, in situ

Job · Atmosphere

The same coastal world as today's Ocean shot, but the pott is unmistakably the hero and the props are stripped back to one piece of driftwood and a sprig of eucalyptus. Calm, airy, spacious.

04Macro craft detail

Job · Justify the price

The glaze pooling and breaking over the edge into the raw, speckled stoneware base, with the "Pott" mark debossed into the clay. This is the shot that says "handmade" and earns the £69.

05Scale / in hand

Job · Show the real size

Hands cupping the pott so the size is obvious — something the current gallery never communicates. Cosy, human, tactile.

06Open box / unboxing

Job · Gifting + what arrives

The kraft gift box opened: the pott, the "Match Pott" muslin bag, and one Seasalt refill, nested and tidy. The gifting moment, and a second reinforcement of exactly what's inside.

Unboxing concept — Note: the printed lid letter is placeholder — AI can't render full body copy cleanly. On a real shoot this is simply the actual printed box.

Recommended gallery order

Studio hero, lit — desire
What's included flat-lay — clarity (resolves the contents confusion)
Lifestyle in situ, decluttered — atmosphere
Macro detail — justifies the price
Scale / in hand — size reference
Open box — gifting + what arrives

On the three options we discussed: plain grey is right only for the "what's included" frame, never the hero (it throws away Pott's handmade warmth). Full lifestyle stays, but as the atmosphere slot, decluttered. The elevated studio-lifestyle — product as hero — is the backbone (Image 01). And the system swaps cleanly to any variant: change the glaze + scent and re-shoot.