Are your best assets for modeling being used?

Hey Girls,

Recently a girl told me she was having a hard time noticing her assets as a model.

You can see on the right side there is a list of popular posts and there are tips on photos, submitting to agencies and noticing your assets, however I wanted to tell you that noticing your assets is about noticing what is marketable about you  as a model when it comes to how certain traits or characteristics can be used towards marketing a product, representing the vibe of a brand, or a certain magazine editorial. Noticing your assets is about thinking about what you have that a brand, product or magazine might like, and thinking about how your look can translate into modeling for brands and products and magazines.

When you get booked for a modeling or sent to a casting from an agency your assets are being considered. What you naturally have and if it fits what the client: casting director, art director or editor is looking for. The asset being: what you have that can be marketable and relatable to the brand or magazine which are meeting in hopes of being booked to represent their brand in the campaign, print ad or for an editorial.

An asset is noticing what you have that can be used in modeling in a positive way:
Your smile, skin tone, your energy and personality, your hair, your eyes, etc.

You should know what you have that is marketable as a model. Study ads in magazines, study catalogs, watch commercials, and not just focus on fashion, fashion is misleading for shorter models usually.
An asset is something you consider marketable about you. When you think of product ads, magazine editorials ask yourself: What do I have that would a modeling asset? What makes me great for modeling products, what type of products? What type of magazines could I realistically be in modeling for? What type of commercials and commercial print work get I realistically get?

When you know yourself you can be a better model. You can prepare your photos better and you can market what you have that is marketable better.

It is best to capture these assets within your photos. And also consider the photos that shorter models, aka print models need:  http://www.petitemodelingtips.com/2009/08/commercial-print-modeling-photos-for.html

Most of the time commercial print modeling agencies want to see photos that look like ads, photo that look like you can work with products well and naturally, may it be a beauty product, technology -computer, cell phone, home goods, clothing and accessories. For a shorter girl accessories are best to focus on when it comes to retail fashion items. Commercial print modeling agencies want to see a comp card that shows your close ups, smiling shots and shots with you interacting naturally with products, if you have not been in a product ad yet, create photos with goals in mind that the images need to be ad-inspired as if it is a product ad. Ex: put on a pair of shoes, the logo and brand doesn't matter, the goal is not to create a mock-ad of a brands product, but to show you can model products well...create shots that shows you know how to model the shoe naturally, as if you could for a real ad.

The photos you show equal the jobs you get. I can not stress that enough. You want to model beauty, show beauty shots, you want to model jeans, show jeans shots, you want to work as a commercial print model show personality in your photos, smiling. Inspire the jobs you want to get.

A smile shot is important and after looking at your photos I would make sure you work on some smile shots. Smiling shots show personality and a smile shot represents what a lot of what commercial print modeling is all about.  I hope this helps :)

Tune into the podcast segment this week (Dec 28th at 11 AM EST) on Modeling in 2011 and models knowing your assets.

~Isobella