How To Harness Photography In Your Branding

A picture truly is worth a thousand words: when used correctly, it can do a lot of heavy lifting in your branding projects, discovers Emily Gosling

Anyone with a smartphone can be a photographer now, it seems. Yet just as being able to play three chords on a guitar doesn’t make you Keith Richards, so owning a smartphone doesn’t make you a capable image-maker.

Alongside skills in things such as typography, layout and strategic thinking, today’s brand designers need to harness the value of great photography, and know how, why and where to use it. Photography can make or break projects, whether they be packaging designs, brochures, posters, printed promo tools or vast billboards – both in terms of how it’s used on a brand, and how a designer documents their projects.

“You can have great work, but if it’s not presented properly, it can ruin the look and feel of the project on your website,” says Jessica Walsh, the head of new studio &Walsh. “It can be costly to hire a real photographer, but if you’re able to do this professionally, wonderful! If you’re doing custom photography, I recommend making it worth the time and money by ensuring the work feels unique to your project.”

When it comes to self-promotional photography across project documentation, social media posts, staff portraits and more, such imagery should align with your values and personality as a studio or creative. Are you and your work, for instance, generally playful, modern, understated? Just as you’d include photography style in the brand guidelines you’d create for a client, your own photography style is a key part of your brand. London-based studio Commission says that one of the most important elements in photographing work well is creating a “mood” for each project. However, within that it’s best to keep it simple in terms of how you present your work online.