Recently, I have had several discussions about creating a commercial portrait with corporate marketing directors and graphic designers. Specifically, we discussed what was current, what was classy and what was important in a portrait used in marketing.
One Photo Fits All? Not Likely!
Like most things in life, there was no one solution that fits every situation. Sometimes the creative decisions behind the photograph are driven by the orientation and placement of the image on the page. Sometimes, the background of the page dictates a clean and simplified approach. And, other times, the image is the entire cover of the piece and needs to echo the concepts in the headlines.
In all cases, when we limited the scope of the picture to just the primary end use of the picture, the production of the image becomes more effective. And the end result is stronger, even when used for other projects.
As a general rule of thumb, I recommend clean, simple studio style sets (which can be set up on location, as well!) for biography pages, LinkedIn profiles and other directory type uses.
For client case studies, recruitment pages, and other slice of life illustrations, environmental portraits, like the one here, are very effective.
The Commercial Portrait
This was created, on location, in the lobby of Gillette, for The Simon Graduate School of Business, in Rochester. They were looking for an alumni portrait that looked young and fresh and avoided all of the cliches of the old school headshot or the person “standing in front of their desk, looking uncomfortable” picture.
Want to talk about how we create casual, comfortable, yet professional, portraits for your marketing projects?
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