Eight Tips for Creating Headline-Grabbing Images by Cos Sakkas
Since the 1990s TONI&GUY international artistic director and head of education, Cos Sakkas has been creating award-winning images. From his Newcomer of the Year collection in 1999 to his British Hairdresser of the Year nominee collection in 2020, Cos has been creating beautiful, creative, and commercial images.
Working on a photo shoot is one of my favourite things to do – it gives you an opportunity to be creative, work with some incredible people, and push yourself out of your comfort zone.”
So, what has he learnt over the past 20 years? Here are his tips for creating headline-grabbing images:
- Make sure your models are individual and beautiful in their own rights. Do not be a follower of fashion but work with their own personal beauty.
- Make a physical mood board rather than collecting images on your phone. It will help with your creativity and be a reference point for everyone on the day.
- Make sure the hair, make-up, and clothes all work together. Remember it is a hair shoot and you do not want to detract from the hairstyle you have created, so keep everything else simple and understated.
- Work with a team who have the same vision as you but will push you to try new things.
- Shoot for you and no one else – do not shoot for the Awards, shoot for yourself. You want a collection that is true to you and shows your skills, passion, and vision. If you put pressure on your shoulders to create a winning collection, you will lose your focus.
- Shoot in colour and black and white – both will be beautiful but give a different dimension to your finished look.
- Stay focused – do not be distracted by whacky ideas. Find your niche and stick to what you are good at and produce images that are beautiful and trend led.
- Take your time when cropping your images – full length has a totally different feeling to close-up, so choose wisely and do not rush this process.
Find out more about Cos Sakkas at www.toniandguy.com