The 2015 TAFE NSW International Student Guide was to be based on the previous year’s design (see separate portfolio entry) with one major difference: the cover had to use TAFE NSW students.

On receiving a photo of a group of students from one of the regional institutes, however, it was obvious that while the subject matter was fine, the setting would not suit the tone of the cover.

For logistical reasons, there was no time to reshoot and so I decided to deep etch the students from their outside setting and place them into an interior scene. To do this I had to recreate parts of the interior (table etc) and flip the students horizontally to better suit the new setting. There were numerous subtle adjustments that had to be made to lighting and to shadows to make sure the students were realistically sitting in the scene.

When confronted by printouts of the original and the new version, the staff at TAFE NSW (International) could not detect which was the original version.