You know the drill. The studio shoot is all set — workflow finalized, samples delivered and organized, crew briefed and on set — when a key stakeholder calls with a new item that must be included, throwing a well-planned shot list out the window. 

You make it work — creatives always do — but it’s extra stress, extra time, possibly extra cost and, worse, maybe the final output isn’t as good as you’d like. 

Welcome to the studio world.  

Even if quality doesn’t suffer, constant fire drills are obviously not ideal when producing the creative work that’s key to any consumer-facing business that must feed product information to an ever-growing list of channels.  

Using tech to foster creative work 

Devin Fisher, Executive Director of Studios for Betty, a Quad agency, has some advice: “Let’s use technology for the repetitive stuff to allow the creatives to be more creative on set or in their productions. Because we didn’t go to art school just to push the same button every single day.”

In other words, in any challenging creative production scenario, technology is your friend. Despite the headlines, tech — including AI, digital photography, 3D scanning and software tools for tasks including sample management — won’t replace creative processes, Fisher says. Rather, they can help make them easier and better.

Tech tools can free up time and allow breathing room for a culture that supports and encourages people and creativity. Technology and culture together are the foundation of creative work, says Fisher, who directs photo studios at Quad locations across the globe.

Fisher offers some tips on how high tech and soft skills can work together to manage the chaos and foster creative work:

Generative AI and CGI for brand imagery: A guide for marketers 

How technology enables creative processes and enhances team culture

Must-have tools for content management at scale 

AI automation. Fisher’s focus is not on using generative AI for creating images but deploying AI tools that streamline and automate processes. “We’re using AI to move things around and make basic decisions so that photographers and other creatives can focus on what’s in front of them — make the lighting look good, get the right lens setting and so on,” he says. “Let’s let computers do what they do really well.” For example:

  • On the front end, use AI to extract information from a creative brief and develop a shot list. It might generate a list with 25 items, identifying shot types like styled food, room se