How to align visuals with branding

Start With the Brand, Not the Camera

Before we plan a single frame we ask to see whatever the client already has: the logo files, the type they use, the colours their site is built on, the last campaign they were happy with. Photography that ignores all of that is photography they will crop, filter and eventually replace.

Half an hour spent on this at the start saves a reshoot. It also tells us something no brief ever does, which is what the client actually likes as opposed to what they say they want.

Match the Palette, Not Just the Mood

A brand built on warm neutrals will fight every cool blue you hand it. We set the palette at the location, in the wardrobe and in the props, rather than trying to grade our way there afterwards. Colour you capture holds up; colour you invent in post falls apart the moment the image is resized or printed.

The same goes for contrast. If a brand's whole visual language is soft and low-contrast, a set of hard-lit portraits will look like they came from somewhere else, however good they are on their own.

The test is simple: put the new photograph next to the client's existing work. If it looks like a guest, it is not finished.

Shoot for the Crops You Know Are Coming

Every image will be cut into a square for one platform, a tall rectangle for another and a wide banner for the site. We frame with all three in mind and leave the room to do it, which usually means shooting a little wider than the picture we have in our heads.

We deliver the crops as well as the masters. A client who has to make them is a client who will make them badly, under time pressure, on the day the campaign goes out.

Write the Rules Down

At the end of a project we hand over a short guide: which images go where, how much they can be cropped, what the minimum size is, and what not to do to them. It is two pages, and it is the difference between work that stays consistent for a year and work that drifts in a month.