Drop day is in 48 hours. You have 30 product shots in a shared folder, three different naming conventions, and someone just sent a revised colorway at midnight. Your collection catalogue should already be done — and it isn't. Sound familiar? Prepping a product grid before launch is one of those tasks that sounds straightforward until you're elbow-deep in a Photoshop file at 2 a.m. trying to align mockups by hand. There's a better way to build a clean, export-ready photo grid that actually makes your collection look like a collection.
Why a Pre-Launch Catalogue Is Not Optional
A collection catalogue isn't just a pretty lookbook for the website. It's the single source of truth your team, wholesale buyers, press contacts, and social media manager all pull from. When it's messy — inconsistent crops, random ordering, mixed backgrounds — every downstream touchpoint suffers: the Instagram grid looks chaotic, the Stories swipe-up feels off, and the wholesale PDF looks amateur.
More importantly, the product grid layout you publish at launch sets the visual tone for the entire collection. You get one shot at a first impression. Buyers scroll fast. Cohesion wins.
The Most Common Mistakes Brands Make Before Launch
- Building the catalogue last. The catalogue gets treated as a post-production task, not a pre-launch asset. By the time you get to it, you're rushing.
- No consistent grid logic. Products dropped into a photo grid without a visual hierarchy — mixing flat lays, model shots, and detail shots randomly — create visual noise instead of a story.
- Wrong export formats for each channel. Your Instagram feed needs a different layout ratio than your Stories (9:16) or your wholesale PDF. Preparing all three separately in Photoshop eats hours.
- Relying on one person. When the catalogue lives in one designer's Photoshop file, every change request becomes a bottleneck.
How to Structure Your Collection Catalogue Like a Pro
1. Audit Your Assets First
Before you open any editor, gather every approved product image in one folder. Standardise file names (e.g., ss25-jacket-black-front.png), flag any missing shots, and decide which images are hero shots vs. supporting detail shots. Your product grid will only be as strong as the assets feeding it.
2. Map Out the Visual Order
Think about the story you want to tell. Most strong collection catalogues open with a hero piece or a look that encapsulates the mood, then flow through categories (tops → bottoms → outerwear → accessories). Within each category, group by colorway. Write this order out — even in a simple numbered list — before you start dragging images around.
3. Choose Your Grid Format for Each Channel
Decide upfront which grid layouts and formats you need:
- Instagram feed — square or 4:5 portrait grid
- Instagram Stories / Reels cover — 9:16 vertical
- Lookbook / wholesale PDF — landscape A4 or custom multi-product collage
- Website banner / editorial — wide horizontal layout
Trying to fit one layout into all of these is where most brands waste time. Plan for each channel separately.
4. Keep Backgrounds and Crops Consistent
Nothing kills a collection catalogue faster than mixing a white-background flat lay with a lifestyle shot with an off-white studio shot in the same row. Pick a consistent background treatment for each section and stick to it. If you're working with PNG files on transparent backgrounds, you have full flexibility — which is exactly when a grid builder earns its keep.
5. Lock the Order Before Final Export
Once the photo grid is assembled, share it internally for one final check: are hero pieces prominent? Is the color story logical? Are any products missing? Make changes at the layout stage — not after export — to avoid redoing everything.
How Grider Solves This — Step by Step
This is exactly the workflow Grider was built for. Instead of wrestling with Photoshop layers or paying for a design subscription you barely use, you prep your entire collection catalogue in the browser — no account, no watermark, no cost.
- Upload your product images. Drag your PNG or JPG files directly into the editor. Grider accepts transparent PNGs, so your product shots land cleanly on any background colour you choose.
- Pick a grid template. Choose from pre-built product grid layouts sized for Instagram feed, Stories (9:16), lookbook pages, or custom formats. The structure is already there — you're not building from scratch.
- Drag to reorder. Rearrange products within the grid by dragging. Swap a hero shot to the first slot, push a colorway variation to the end — the layout adjusts instantly. This is the step that used to take 40 minutes in Photoshop.
- Adjust spacing, background, and scale. Set a clean white, black, or custom background. Tweak padding between product images for that editorial breathing room. No layer panels, no alignment guides — just sliders.
- Export in high resolution. Download your finished collection catalogue grid as a high-quality image, ready for Instagram, Stories, your website, or a wholesale PDF. No watermark. No compression surprises.
Because Grider runs entirely in the browser, your whole team can prep and review grids without installing anything. Someone updates a product shot at the last minute? Re-upload, re-export, done — in under five minutes.
One Grid, Multiple Deliverables
The smartest move before any launch is to build your master collection catalogue grid once and export it in all the formats you need. In Grider, switching between an Instagram square layout and a 9:16 Stories format takes seconds — you're not rebuilding the collage from zero each time. That's the difference between a team that launches looking polished and a team that's still exporting files while the Instagram post goes live.
The Pre-Launch Catalogue Checklist
- All approved product images gathered and named consistently
- Visual order mapped out (hero → categories → colorways)
- Grid format chosen per channel (feed, Stories, lookbook)
- Backgrounds and crops consistent across the layout
- Internal review done at the grid stage, before export
- High-res exports ready for every destination
Your collection deserves a catalogue that matches the work you put into it. Stop rebuilding the same product grid manually every season. Open the Grider editor now — upload your collection, drag it into order, and export a launch-ready catalogue in minutes, free, no sign-up required.