Innovation Warehouse Brand Photography Guidelines

INNOVATION WAREHOUSE
© 2013 Klaus Bravenboer, Peter Thomson, Ross Mackay
Photography Guidelines
Visual storytelling
2
GUIDELINES

INTRODUCTION
Photography is an essential tool to
bring a brand to life. The Innovation
Wa re h o u s e ’s p h o t o g ra p h y
should express it’s core values of
approachability, professionalism and
productivity.
Most importantly, the Innovation
Warehouse is a brand about people,
not the physical space. While it’s
important to showcase the space, we
try to focus on how people interact
with it (and each other).
As the Innovation Warehouse
brand expands to new locations the
emphasis in photography will switch
from individual locations should to
the overall values of the brand.

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PEOPLE
The community is the backbone of
the Innovation Warehouse and this
needs to reflected in all our official
photography.
Emphasise
• Professionalism
• Engaged and busy
• Welcoming
• Inclusivity
Show
• Working hard
• Interacting with others
• Making use of the space
Avoid
• Posed shots
• Stock photography feel
• People looking bored
• People looking anti-social
Interacting Solitary
Natural Unnatural

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SPACE
Good photography of the space
itself is vital for both attracting
new members and showcasing the
current ones.
The space needs to feel homely and
used by members but not cluttered.
Emphasise
• Homely feel
• Inviting community
Show
• Plenty of space to work
• Interaction with the space
• Close-ups to put the viewer into
the story
Avoid
• Clutter and mess
• Large empty spaces
• Long shots of the entire space
• Soulless and corporate shots
Inviting Empty
Homely Cluttered

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QUALITY
All official photography should be
of high quality. A camera phone
photograph might work for social
media but doesn’t fit with the
professional tone the brand needs
for print and the officeal website.
Try to
• Use natural lighting where
possible
• Shoot away from the windows
• Get a good dynamic range
Photos must be
• High resolution
• Properly exposed
• Appropriately cropped
Avoid
• Noisy low light photos
• Reflections
• Blurred photos
Good range Underexposed and flat
High resolution Low resolution and noisy

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FOCUS
The focus of the photo should
change depending on the context
but there are general rules to follow.
Make the
• Subject in focus
• Subject matter obvious
Make use of
• Shallow depth of field for
emphasis
Avoid
• The entire scene in focus
• Blurred subjects
Clear subject matter No clear subject matter
Subject blurredSubject in focus

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CROPPING
Photos should be cropped to
emphasise either context or detail.
Contextual photos are wider shots
establishing a scene or environment.
Examples include the Innovation
Warehouse office space or a room
of event attendees.
Detail shots focus on a person or
object. This could be a portrait of a
member working or a speaker at an
event.
Contextual
Detail
Cropping to an interesting detail

PRODUCT
STORYTELLING
Each of the four product categories have
additional guidelines to be followed.
Considerthecorebrandvaluesandproduct-
taglines as well as the target audiences for
each product story:
COWORKING
COMMUNITY
INVESTMENT
GROWTH
TRAINING
EDUCATION
EVENTS
INSPIRATION

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PRODUCT:
COWORKING
When photographs are used to
promote the coworking space
consider the following:
Emphasise
• Community
• Productivity
Make the space seem
• Inviting
• Large
• Welcoming
Make use of
• Warmer tones
Emphasis on community Empty space
Welcoming Unwelcoming

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PRODUCT:
INVESTMENT
When photography is used to
promote the investment services
extra guidelines should be followed:
Try to capture
• People hard at work
• People doing deals
• People in meetings
• Whiteboards / charts
• Balance between casual and
formal attire
Hard working
Professional

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PRODUCT:
TRAINING
promote the training services
Emphasise
• Growth
• Learning
Show
• Productivity
• Interaction with charts / diagrams
• Classes in progress
Avoid
• Boredom
• One sided teaching
• Charts by themselves
People engaged and interacting Disengaged
Interactions Just charts

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PRODUCT:
EVENTS
promote events and meetups
Emphasise
• Attendees
• Speakers
Show
• Engaged audiences
• A full audience
• An inviting space
Avoid
• Bored and distracted people
• Empty chairs
• Too much emphasis on slides
Engaged audience Disengaged
Full audience Empty chairs

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SOCIAL MEDIA
Photography for use on the official
social media accounts is slightly
different.
Quality
• Still aim for high quality but
camera phones are acceptable for
Twitter and Facebook
• Use quick event photos during
and directly afterwards
• Follow up after the event with
better quality photography
Subject matter
• Don’t overdo it on the cat photos
• Mix of the different products
Avoid
• Black and white photography
• Stock imagery
• General office empty shots
Homely Empty
Vibrant colour Black & White

CONCLUSION
The Innovation Warehouse is known
by its fruits. Photography is the best
way to tell the story of our members
and their successes.
For a prospective visitor to the
Innovation Warehouse, photographs
are the best way to get a feel for the
space and the people.
Better quality photography will lead
to better communication with our
audience.

Innovation Warehouse Brand Photography Guidelines

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