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Professional brand photography is simply depicting a brand through the medium of photography. It is creating imagery which encapsulates and shows off your brand to potential customers. As we know, photography is often more impactful than graphics and text, and it is essential to tie everything together. Who wants to see a website with no images coming into 2023? Brands will simply be left behind if they’re showing tiny, pixelated imagery that looks like it’s been taken on a Nokia Brick. Brand photography can help you tell the story of who you are, what you do and why you do it. All of this will attract your ideal clients and help boost your sales. Here are some more reasons why it’s important:
One of the ways good photography really elevates your brand is by creating realism and accuracy. Stock imagery is widely used now and therefore is often recognisable to people. Partly thanks to covid for stopping us from getting out there and taking new photography, we are now getting overloaded with stock that is often repeated - the same models are being used,the same woodland scene you think you’ve definitely seen before and so on. So, getting your own personal photography helps you stand out from the crowd, and you look more respectable in the process.
As designers, we will always aim to set the tone of your brand through every element we use on the page, such as the typeface we choose, the colour scheme we pick, and how much space we give each element. But ultimately, the best way to show the brand’s tone of voice is through imagery. It can make a huge difference in how your brand is seen by your customers, and ultimately, it’s the main thing that causes them to stay on the page or pressthat ‘X’ button in less than a second.
Take Soho House as an example. You land on their website, and you can instantly see the essence of the brand, the high-end luxury feel that’s been established through photography. Showing large, impressive photographs of perfect rooms that look warm and luxurious. For a brand such as this, photography is extremely important and used as a visual language, so much so that there is very minimal text to read. They simply don’t need it. Soho House has achieved this statureby the consistent execution of this defined style over a long period of time, which means their customers now know what they’re going to get, no questions asked.
Taking it down a few pay brackets, a brand that’s more widely used (by me anyway) is Zara Home. Another good example of how photography creates the essence of the brand. This being an E-Commerce site, photography takes centre stage. When you land on the site, you can instantly see it’s all about being cosy yet affordable. It strikes a fine balance between more relatable imagery that still looks inspirational. They are capturing their target audience by helping them to imagine what their products would look like in their homes. Zara is so incredibly popular due to how its brand looks and feels with the way it gives an element of luxury to the everyday person, and without such beautiful imagery, it would not be able to achieve this.
As designers, we feel the struggle of knowing just how successful a brand can be if only they invested in some good photography. We fight with great designs that get ruined by a cheesy stock image. So, from us to you, the secret to great branding is good photography, especially in a saturated and competitive environment. It is important to create a relevant and memorable brand through photography that is not only strong but also experiential.
1. If you insist on doing an in-house job, get some good quality camera equipment, or even the newest smartphone cameras are pretty great these days.
2. When you’re taking pictures, step back and zoom out to get a wide shot so we can see everything. The designers can decide what angle they want by cropping the image later.
3. Take loads! Give us options so we can choose the best and we don’t have to ask for more at a later date.
4. And to put it bluntly, if you want to look professional, hire a professional. Even if you’re a start-up and struggling to stretch the budget, message your old mate from school that’s got a cracking photography Instagram account.
