Brand communication is not only products and logos. In many of my corporate productions the center of the picture is the people who pass on knowledge, solve technical problems, make decisions or celebrate together.
Three events show this particularly clearly, and all three are built differently: a technical contest, a training day with a stage, and a working meeting of senior managers.
Three events, three roles
At the Honda European Skills Contest, specialists from several countries were followed through concentrated stretches of work. The Trainer Experience by La Biosthétique showed presenters, models and an international audience. At the Hörbiger TOP100 Meeting, exchange and shared work mattered more than a classic stage situation.
For the camera that means a different position every time. A contest is photographed from close range without disturbing the process, a stage demonstration from the side and from within the audience, a working meeting on the move between the tables.
What makes a picture credible
Pictures like these work when people are not simply lined up for the camera. A checking glance, a movement of the hand, a reaction in the audience or a conversation says more about an organization than a neutral row of portraits.
That does not rule out posed frames. The group photo, the award handover and the portrait are part of the job. They just cannot carry the series on their own, because they show how a company arranges itself rather than how it works.
The brand gains a face
The brands stay visible. Logo, colors, workwear and signage are in the room anyway and need no extra emphasis. What they gain is a human face, because the people in the frame really are part of that event and that task.
This is exactly where such a set differs from bought-in stock material. More examples are under portrait and people photography and event photography.
