15 Ways to Implement Nature into Your Art Direction
A creative guide to using nature as more than just a backdrop
Hi everyone,
Very excited to share a new guide on different art direction techniques. We’ve covered 30 very simple art direction techniques when you feel like your images need a bit of spice to add, and 15 ways to art direct sneakers. I’ll link them down below. Today we have a round up of 15 ways to implement nature into your art direction. These guides take forever to make, so it took a while since the last one, but I have a lot more in the making.
15 Ways to implement nature into your art direction
Nature is an endless source of visual material. Shapes, textures, light, movement. It gives you everything. When a concept feels flat or overly digital, adding something from nature can shift the energy completely. It adds feeling. It makes the image breathe. Sometimes, when something is missing and you can’t explain why, the answer is simple: bring in nature.
This isn’t about placing a flower next to a product for the sake of it. It’s about using natural elements with intention. Think of how fabric moves in the wind, how light filters through trees, how cracked earth holds form, or how skin mirrors stone. Nature adds contrast, weight and meaning.
These 15 examples are not necessarily trends. They’re simple ways I’ve seen used in campaigns, editorials and concept shoots over the years. I come back to them every now and then, I have a lot of these lists so I love sharing them with you. Some are subtle and atmospheric. Others are bold or strange. Use them as creative starting points, or combine them with your own concept when the idea still feels loose.
1. Topiary Shapes
Why it works:
Topiary shapes give you control over nature without losing its texture. They feel sculptural and graphic, but still soft and organic. There’s something surreal about how perfectly shaped they are, which adds a sense of artifice to an otherwise natural setting. It’s a way to use greenery almost like a prop or object, without relying on floral styling or typical nature tropes.
Where it fits:
This works well for campaigns where you want to merge high fashion with play. It brings a high-fashion feel to outdoorsy settings and can be used to contrast with sharp tailoring, bold colours or unexpected styling. It’s especially strong in stills and static moments, where you want the environment to feel constructed and cinematic.
2. Fruity Product Close-Ups
Why it works:
Using fruit in close-up compositions instantly adds texture, colour, and a sense of place. It creates a tactile world around the product without needing a full set. The organic shapes contrast well with jewellery, skincare, or accessories, making the image feel sensual and alive. It’s styled but not overworked, which keeps it emotionally close.
Where it fits:
Works well for campaigns that want to feel summery, sun-warmed, and instinctive. It’s especially strong for jewellery, beauty, or lifestyle brands that lean into natural glow and personal rituals. Best used when you want the product to feel wearable and styled in a way that’s effortless but considered.
3. Water Splashes
Why it works:
Water introduces energy, clarity and light into an image. A well-placed splash can make the scene feel alive, adding movement without needing a person or action shot. It creates contrast with matte textures like skin, fabric or product packaging. There’s a sensory pull to it, something clean, refreshing, and tactile that draws you in.
Where it fits:
Strong for beauty, wellness or summer-focused campaigns where you want to visualise freshness or purity. It can be used in both commercial and editorial settings to elevate product shots or portraits. Works especially well with minimal styling and natural light, letting the water become the visual hook.
4. Tree as Centrepiece
Why it works:
Placing a tree at the heart of the frame creates instant presence. It feels grounded and symbolic, like a quiet monument. The organic shape, texture, and scale give you something visually rich to build around, whether that’s styling, casting or composition. It’s a way to anchor the scene in nature without making it feel decorative.
Where it fits:
Works beautifully in outdoor editorials, fashion lookbooks or slower campaigns where you want a sense of reflection, scale or simplicity. Especially strong when styled with contrast, sharp tailoring, bold makeup, or minimalist set dressing that lets the tree speak.
5. The Flower Shop
Why it works:
A flower shop immediately adds layers of texture, life, and informality to an image. It blends the natural with the urban, soft petals and plastic buckets, fresh colour and concrete floors. The setting is rich but not styled, which makes it feel real. You can play with mess or symmetry, close crops or wide shots, and the florals always bring an emotional undertone: romance, routine, or self love.
Where it fits:
Great for collections that want to feel local, romantic, or nostalgic without being overly curated. It works well for spring/summer drops, but also for off-season campaigns that want to inject life. Especially strong for youth culture, lifestyle, and sportswear brands leaning into community or soft masculinity.
6. Faking It with a Printed Backdrop
Why it works:
Printed backdrops give you full control over nature while keeping the production simple and stylised. They let you create surreal tension between the artificial and the organic, what looks like nature at first glance becomes obviously man-made on closer inspection. It allows for humour, nostalgia, or painterly references, depending on how it's lit and styled. The tension between the subject and the scene becomes part of the visual story.
Where it fits:
Perfect for lookbooks, editorials or indie campaigns where you want to play with constructed worlds and nod to lo-fi or analogue techniques. Works well when you want to ground the styling in emotion, but still keep the production feeling intentional and art-directed. Especially strong in fashion, jewellery, or cultural storytelling where mood outweighs realism.
7. A Patch of Texture in the Studio
Why it works:
Placing a small patch of nature like moss, stones, or overgrown plants, inside a stark studio setting creates instant contrast. It introduces a grounded, tactile element into a hyper-controlled space. This dissonance draws your eye and gives emotional tension to an otherwise clean, minimal shot. The plants feel slightly out of place, which makes them even more intentional. It’s a low-effort, high-impact technique that keeps the focus on the styling while adding a conceptual layer.
Where it fits:
Ideal for lookbooks, fashion films or digital campaigns that need to hint at nature without leaving the studio. It works especially well for brands rooted in streetwear, technical fashion, or minimal aesthetics looking to add depth and texture. Use it when you want to suggest an outdoorsy vibe without going literal, or when the image needs a small hit of life to balance out the clean lines.
8. The Sporty Grass Field
Why it works:
A sporty field gives you nature in its most controlled, performative form. It’s outdoor, but it’s flat, graphic, and often painted with lines or marked by goalposts. This mix of green grass and competitive context adds energy, youth, and a bit of tension. The backdrop brings in open sky, layered textures, and the familiarity of everyday athletics, while still letting fashion or styling take the spotlight.
Where it fits:
Best for fashion shoots that want to lean into nostalgia, teen spirit, or sporty sensuality. It works for both polished editorials and casual campaigns, especially when you want to add an ironic or playful twist to performance settings. Strong for youth-focused, retro, or subcultural fashion brands especially when styled with contrast or attitude.
9. Blue Sky as Backdrop
Why it works:
A clear blue sky is one of the most powerful yet simple tools in nature-based art direction. It gives you a cinematic canvas, bold, clean, and emotionally loaded. The vastness of sky adds light, optimism, and openness, while the upward angle elongates the body and brings movement into the frame. Blue sky as a background also flattens the image in a surreal way, letting silhouettes, texture and expression become the focus. It’s light without being fluffy, poetic without being cliché.
Where it fits:
Strong for minimal fashion stories, joyful brand campaigns, or portraits that want to centre expression and body language. Works across categories, from beauty to lifestyle, when you want to keep things grounded in nature but emotionally elevated. Especially powerful in transitional seasons like spring and autumn, when the light has character but the sky still feels clean.
10. Coastal Backdrop (High Fashion Edition)
Why it works:
The coast gives you scale, texture, and mood. But when styled with sharp silhouettes or sculptural looks, it becomes more like a stage. The clash between soft nature (ocean, sand, breeze) and structured fashion (tailoring, luxury materials, jewellery) creates a tension. Whether you lean into elegance, surrealism, or character, the setting always adds emotional weight and depth.
Where it fits:
Perfect for high-fashion campaigns, elevated resort collections or editorials that aim to blend freedom with precision. Works beautifully in natural light, especially around golden hour or cloudy days. Use it when you want your images to feel editorial, expansive, and timeless, without losing their edge.
11. Shells as Props
Why it works:
Shells carry natural symbolism, sensory texture, and sculptural form all in one. They’re nostalgic yet primal, decorative yet raw. When used as props, whether held, worn, or echoed through shape, they create immediate mood. They reference femininity, sound, touch, and memory, and bring a poetic quality that feels both quiet and powerful. Because no two are the same, they never feel generic, and their shape naturally draws the eye.
Where it fits:
Works beautifully in jewellery campaigns, swimwear stories, or personal portraiture that wants to tap into sensuality and softness. Best used when the image is about mood and body connection. Pairs well with sunlight, minimal styling, or grainy textures. A favourite for summer campaigns that want to feel emotionally rich rather than trend-led.
12. A Peek of Greenery Through the Window
Why it works:
Framing nature from the inside adds emotional depth without staging anything. It’s a quiet way to bring life into an image, the suggestion of the outdoors adds softness, scale, and atmosphere. A single tree, a garden, or distant hills seen through a window creates contrast between the built and the organic. It gives the viewer a place to breathe. You don’t need to shoot in nature to feel connected to it.
Where it fits:
Perfect for shoots where the focus is still on fashion, product, or subject but you want to bring in groundedness, serenity, or emotional warmth. Works well in editorials, campaigns, and lookbooks that take place indoors but want to feel alive, intimate, and cinematic. Especially strong in cultures where the relationship to nature is emotional or symbolic.
13. Statues in the Park
Why it works:
Statues bring a sense of timelessness and quiet authority. When placed in a natural setting like a park, they create tension between the human-made and the organic. There's something surreal about stillness surrounded by movement: leaves rustling, light shifting, bodies passing by. Whether shot close-up or wide, statues invite narrative. They hold gaze without emotion, letting the viewer project meaning.
Where it fits:
Great for shoots that want to explore themes of memory, history, or emotion in a subtle way. Works especially well for transitional seasons (pre-fall, early spring) or for editorial work that plays with contrast like flesh vs stone, movement vs pause. Can anchor a fashion story with structure, or add symbolism without forcing the message. Best when left as they are, weathered and surrounded by life.
14. Hiding in the Bushes
Why it works:
There’s something cinematic about being partially hidden, like the image is being stolen rather than staged. Shooting through foliage or framing a subject within overgrown greenery creates a voyeuristic feel, as if we’ve caught them in a private moment. It softens the edges of the frame and adds a layer of tension or mystery without needing props or set design.
Where it fits:
Ideal for campaigns where you want to evoke secrecy, intimacy, or emotional distance. Especially strong for youth brands, editorials about identity or solitude, or resort collections shown in unexpected ways. Use it when you want the viewer to lean in and feel like they’re watching something they’re not meant to see.
15. Into the Water
Why it works:
Water distorts, softens, and transforms, it immediately shifts the context of fashion from constructed to fluid. Entering water becomes a metaphor for surrender, emotion, or rebirth. The ripples, bubbles, and light refraction create organic visual effects that can’t be replicated in post. It also makes the garments and accessories move differently, adding weight, grace, or tension depending on styling.
Where it fits:
These references are ideal for campaigns or editorials that want to convey dreamlike transformation, sensual escape, or inner states. Think luxury resort wear, body-focused design, or themes around memory, nostalgia, or emotional vulnerability. Works well across high fashion, beauty, and accessories, especially when brands want to feel more cinematic, romantic, or otherworldly.
I hope you enjoyed this post and that it sparked some inspiration for your next shoot. Each technique can be used as a starting point to adapt it to your personal style. Let me know if there is something specific you’d love to see next!
Love,
Zoe
This is so interesting for someone learning about art direction. More posts like these please 🤍
You always deliver. I’m hooked on your content.