(From left) Entrepreneurs Brian Miller of St. John, Ind., Adam Paulson of Crown Point, Ind., and Kevin Wool, also of Crown Point, pose in a pile of sweaters destined for sale on the partners’ web site, uglychristmassweaterparty.com.

Through all of my visual disciplines, it’s not often that I’m encouraged to make things look ugly. So, when my email inbox dinged with a photo assignment all about ugly Christmas sweaters, I knew I was in for a nice change of pace.