Our art direction depicts people and their real life needs. When documenting our work, we keep it authentic and real. When showing our team, we go bold and bright.

Introduction

Our art direction section is split into two different parts:

Our art direction section is split into two different parts:

01. Our work 02. Our team

01. Our work

Whenever we shoot imagery for our case studies, blog posts, or reports, we spotlight real people, real lives and real needs. Our shots need to feel authentic and relatable, telling rich stories.  It’s vital that our art direction is inclusive and diverse, featuring a variety of different ethnicities, cultures, genders and ages.

Content

To make sure our imagery is always on brand and consistent, use the following guidance and principles when establishing the content:

To make sure our imagery is always on brand and consistent, use the following guidance and principles when establishing the content:

Always people present

It is very important that people are always present, even if just crops

Strong focal point

Make sure there is a clear focus in all images, heroing the content and cropping into the most important parts

In action

We always depict people in action. Not fake and exagerrated movement, but real snapshot moments

Real everyday environments

Always shoot in real environments that are authentic and everyday

Style

To make sure our imagery is always on brand and consistent, use the following guidance and principles when establishing the look and feel of our images:

To make sure our imagery is always on brand and consistent, use the following guidance and principles when establishing the look and feel of our images:

Reportage/doccumentary style

We shoot in a fresh, contemporary, documentary style

Bright, natural light

Bright, natural lighting with no filters

High saturation

Our images are highly saturated and full of life, not washed out and dull

Depth of field

To accentuate focus, we can use depth of field in some of our shots

Overview of
usage

We combine our photography with other elements in our brand toolkit  in the following ways:

We combine our photography with other elements in our brand toolkit  in the following ways:

Image Image + headline Image + headline + illustrated ‘next’ lines

We combine our photography with other elements in our brand toolkit  in the following ways:

We combine our photography with other elements in our brand toolkit  in the following ways:

We combine our photography with other elements in our brand toolkit  in the following ways:

We combine our photography with other elements in our brand toolkit  in the following ways:

Usage
examples

Here’s some examples of our case study imagery in use.

Here’s some examples of our case study imagery in use.

Commissioning
photography

If you’re looking to commission photography, these are three photographers who shoot our style really well. Best case, they could shoot for us, or alternatively we can use them as a great reference when creating photography briefs.

If you’re looking to commission photography, these are three photographers who shoot our style really well. Best case, they could shoot for us, or alternatively we can use them as a great reference when creating photography briefs.

Dave Kasnic Brian Finke Alice Zoo

If you’re looking to commission photography, these are three photographers who shoot our style really well. Best case, they could shoot for us, or alternatively we can use them as a great reference when creating photography briefs.

If you’re looking to commission photography, these are three photographers who shoot our style really well. Best case, they could shoot for us, or alternatively we can use them as a great reference when creating photography briefs.

If you’re looking to commission photography, these are three photographers who shoot our style really well. Best case, they could shoot for us, or alternatively we can use them as a great reference when creating photography briefs.

Stock
photography selections

When it isn’t possible to shoot our own images, we can use stock photography. Use the same content and style principles outlined above when selecting. Here are some great stock examples and libraries that do our style well.

When it isn’t possible to shoot our own images, we can use stock photography. Use the same content and style principles outlined above when selecting. Here are some great stock examples and libraries that do our style well.

Getty Stocksy Shutterstock

Selection
do’s and
dont’s

Here are some specific things to look out for when selecting from stock.

Here are some specific things to look out for when selecting from stock.

Editing stock
photography

If we need to, we can better align stock imagery with our style by making small photoshop tweaks. See these before and afters to see how we’ve adjusted the images to make them more on-brand.

If we need to, we can better align stock imagery with our style by making small photoshop tweaks. See these before and afters to see how we’ve adjusted the images to make them more on-brand.

Adjusting saturation Cropping

02. Our team

We have a different approach when shooting our team. This is so they are distict, with a different feel to our case studies. We shoot in a studio on bright, poppy backgrounds, heroing and celebrating our Board of Innovation people.

We shoot our team on our brand colour backgrounds to inject personality and ownability into our team shots. We create focus by heroing individuals centrally within the shots, looking confidently straight on at the camera. Poses should feel natural and positive, and lighting should be bright and highly saturated, like our case study shots.

We shoot our team on our brand colour backgrounds to inject personality and ownability into our team shots. We create focus by heroing individuals centrally within the shots, looking confidently straight on at the camera. Poses should feel natural and positive, and lighting should be bright and highly saturated, like our case study shots.

In use

Here’s some examples of our team photography in use.

Here’s some examples of our team photography in use.

Styling

Ideally we would shoot all of our team photography in a studio, so they feel professional and consistent, but if that isn’t possible we can recreate this studio technique by shooting against a plain coloured white or grey wall, and then editing the colour. Here’s some simple principles to folllow.

Ideally we would shoot all of our team photography in a studio, so they feel professional and consistent, but if that isn’t possible we can recreate this studio technique by shooting against a plain coloured white or grey wall, and then editing the colour. Here’s some simple principles to folllow.

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