In the past couple of years I’ve offered a ‘website package’ that has proved popular with a lot of companies. This has come about because I work closely with a number of web designers who refer their clients to me for new shots for the website that’s in development. In essence, the package comprises staff portraits and some shots to populate the new site – a group shot of the workforce; images of the office, including details and wide shots that display the working environment; concept shots that illustrate the qualities that give the firm their USP; or shots of the staff at work. Because I work closely with both clients and the designer, the brief is decided before the day of the shoot, and the photos are created to fit the format of the new website, and to convey the required message.
In the past, companies and designers would buy in stock photos for these spaces. Many still do, but it’s good to work with companies and individuals that want to show off their own business to the full. And, in the process, they’re conveying a strong message of authenticity. After all, if you’re showing your own staff at work, or what the place of work actually looks like, what is more real than that? Even if the focus is on conveying a concept, like ‘we’re a team’, then this is far more credible if it’s actually you and your colleagues in the shot, at a meeting or brain storming.
A good example of this approach was this recent commission for O’Donnell Solicitors in Oldham. As well as providing them with new staff portraits (shot in the boardroom in the company offices), I was also asked to provide stock photos of the building (which is rather brilliantly decorated, as you can see), to help provide a flavour of the experience when you enter the building. These shots have a multitude of uses, as new images when the website is updated, or to accompany blog pieces, to act as twitter account header photos, and so on. (Those photos with the company name are especially useful of course!)
Are you updating your website, or thinking about it? I work with several excellent designers, and we could help you to give your company image a facelift, or simply freshen up what you currently have. For a chat, give me a call on 07766 815703 or email me at info@martinhambleton.com.
