How to Create Professional Mockups?

After you're finished with the product design, the next step is to create visuals that will visualize the product’s end state before the actual production starts. These visuals, namely mockups, help you have an accurate insight into how your branding will look and perform when used on the end products.

When releasing a product, it’s safe to say that creating a mockup before production is one of the most effective ways to showcase your branding and product. Not only will you be able to see how your designs will look in the real world for the first time, but your customers will also get a reliable representation of your brand before making a purchase.

If it’s a clothing brand you’re releasing, you’ll get a great chance to see how your products will look when worn by your customers, thanks to mockups. Or, you can see which colors are the best fit for your designs. For consuming good brands, mockups provide an opportunity to see if your package designs are in line with what you’re going to sell. Or with software brands, screen mockups are probably the best way to present how your end product is going to look and perform to your audience during the early phases of development.

So far, creating a mockup seems like it brings nothing but positive outcomes. It helps your customers understand what your product is and see how it looks. It gives you an opinion on how your designs look in the physical world and helps you decide if they are going to work or not. And it gives you the ability to make design decisions before finalizing your product and minimize your expenses. Not every mockup is successful, though. If certain steps are overlooked in the mockup creation process, it may get harder to achieve the desired outcomes. In this article, we gathered our tips to help you create impressive mockups that look professional.

Choose the right platform

A successful mockup requires precise realism. In order to be a reliable source of opinion about your end products, mockups need to showcase believable visuals. For example, a customer will not be thrilled to buy a t-shirt from your brand if the images on your e-commerce website have easily noticeable visual errors or inconsistencies. Visual imperfections like these fail to create a sense of professionalism that has been put into these works, and mockups far from realism can get your customers to feel like your company isn’t doing enough to persuade and attract them.

So, in a field where realism and precision are critical; choosing the right place to create believable mockups is the first step to a successful and professional mockup. If you’re planning on using third-party software for creating your mockups, Photoshop is probably the most effective option when it comes to creating life-like visuals. But as you can expect, achieving a perfect outcome with Photoshop requires a considerable amount of knowledge and experience on the software. Plus, you still need premium-looking mockup templates. If you are not familiar with Photoshop and looking for a more efficient way to create your mockups, you can consider using online mockup generation tools. Artboard Studio is much more than just a mockup generator, yet it helps you create beautiful and believable mockup images without the need for any external software expertise. With Artboard, you can create clean and realistic mockups that showcase your designs and products. Also, you can take advantage of hundreds of free mockup templates and add your branding into ready-made images tailored to your needs.

Be consistent

When it comes to creating successful and accurate mockups, realism is one of the most effective factors that will impress your customers. But when the ‘realism’ of a mockup is only limited to the visual details of the image, the end result may stray away from how your product would look in the real world. So, there are some important details when editing a mockup.

First, you need to have a thorough understanding of the product you are creating a mockup for so that the mockup actually represents the product’s end state. Integrating a high-quality brand design onto a product image may seem enough at first glance, but overlooking inconsistencies can be a huge mistake. For example, if you are aiming to be a green and sustainable juice brand that prioritizes the environment’s well-being; using plastic bottles and straws in your mockup images is a direct contradiction with what your company tries to be.

Also, your mockup images need to address the same audience as the audience of your product. So, rather than limiting the audience of your mockups to certain stereotypes, being as inclusive as possible and emphasizing the importance of shared interests between your customers is a great way to improve the effectiveness of your mockups. For example, if you’re creating a mockup for a cosmetics brand, make sure to put your products into a context by positioning them among other cosmetics items.

Be aware of quality and definition

Not all mockups are made to be displayed digitally on a website. Some mockups are prepared for printed media such as newspapers, flyers, magazines, brochures, or billboards. And, when your mockups are used in a non-digital form, it can be hard to see how it will look when printed since you created your mockups solely on digital platforms. So, make sure that the definition of your branding and your mockup is high enough to avoid an undesired outcome when enlarged and printed on a paper bigger than your screen.

Also, considering the paper and background color for mockups that will be displayed in a magazine or newspaper helps you avoid visibility issues beforehand. For example, if the paper your mockup will be printed on is white; using the color white in your mockup may cause differences between what you created and what is printed on the paper.

Set your mockups into motion

One of the most common mistakes done when creating a mockup is failing to put the product in a believable environment that looks like it belongs to. Mockups help you showcase your product’s end state. But this does not mean that a just finished product standing in front of a cool background is enough to give an accurate sense of your product. Just like the visuals and branding itself, the product’s environment also needs to be realistic in order to let your audience know you designed that product with end-users in mind.

For example, if you have a clothing brand; portray your items in mockups where they are worn by real people. If you’re creating a mockup for a food brand, position your product on a dinner table with people around it. If your product is software, create an image that looks as if your software is being used by a person on their computer or website. By placing your products in their natural environments, you can help your customers easily relate to your brands through familiar situations. Artboard Studio offers countless free mockup templates of every kind, so you can find what is best for your product and quickly create your own. With Artboard Studio, you won’t need any additional software or expertise to start creating your mockups. You can now join Artboard for free, and start designing your mockups using only your browser!