Home Chef
Art Direction & Production
Home Chef's extras and bundles category was underperforming. The photography wasn't the only reason, but it wasn't helping. I led a full visual overhaul of 100-plus items to fix that.
Backstory
LIGHTS
The Problem
Home Chef is one of the leading meal kit delivery services in the US. Beyond the core weekly recipes, customers can add individual proteins, pantry items, snacks, and ready-to-cook bundles to their order each week. That extras and bundles category is a real revenue driver, but it lives or dies on how good the product looks at the moment of decision.
When I came onto this project, the existing imagery across the category had aged out. The photography was inconsistent, the lighting felt flat, and the overall look didn't hold up against what customers were seeing from competitors.
The numbers reflected it.
The Brief
The ask was simple to state and harder to execute:
reshoot the full extras and bundles catalog from scratch.
Over 100 individual items. Studio photography that felt polished and appetizing, but also cohesive enough to function as a visual system across a rotating weekly menu.
The goal wasn't just better photos.
It was imagery that could actually
move a product.
Creative Direction
I set the visual direction around a single principle: every item should look worth adding to the cart. That sounds obvious, but it meant making real choices about what the previous work had gotten wrong.
The old photography tried to do too much. Busy styling, inconsistent light, no through-line.
At this scale, consistency is a creative problem, not just a production one. With 100-plus items moving through the studio over several weeks, the visual system had to be strong enough to hold together across protein bundles, pantry staples, and snack add-ons without any one item feeling out of place. I built the shot framework early, so every decision on set had something to anchor to.
From Start to Finish
The project ran for over a month of daily shooting and editing. I led the full creative process from pre-production planning through final delivery, working alongside my associate photographer Ana Puga.
Pre Production
Pre-production was where we made the schedule work.
I built out the full shot list, developed styling references for each item category, and put together a visual guide that kept us consistent from day one to the final session.
Production
On set, I directed every frame.
The goal was to maintain the same level of quality on item 100 as on item one, regardless of what the day's production pace required.
Post Production
Post-production followed the same system. Editing was efficient because the shooting was disciplined.
Results
The refreshed imagery had a measurable effect on the menu.
Across the category, items saw rating improvements of 0.10 to 0.50 points following the reshoots, a meaningful lift for a menu where customer ratings directly influence ordering behavior.
Leadership responded positively to both the quality of the work and the efficiency of the production process across such a large catalog.
LIGHTS
Role and Credits
Role: Senior Photographer, in-house
Scope:
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Visual creative direction
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Pre-production planning
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On-set photography direction
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Post-production editing
Collaborator:
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Ana Puga - Associate Photographer