Ask any high school student what he thinks of viewbooks and you’ll hear, “they all look the same.” Of course he’s right. Most viewbooks are overwhelmingly visually similar.

One reason is the photography. Educational photography seems to exist in its own fixed world. We all know the prevailing style: saturated color, sun drenched exteriors, spontaneous and smiling students in small groups. We judge photographers on how well they can render this style. The results are predictable.

If we take the idea of projecting a brand image seriously, then distinctive photography is critical. Brand is not a dry set of talking points, it is a personality expressed through manner, tone and style as well as content. I want to use this post to provide some practical direction on obtaining distinctive photography for your viewbooks and by extension your web sites, but, first, a few general comments:

Those of us in education should realize that our use of original photography increasingly makes us an anomaly in the design world. There has been a wholesale shift in the last decade from original photography to stock photography. Today there are many accomplished graphic designers with little experience in commissioning and art directing original photography. For a variety of ethical and practical reasons, the educational community has not followed this trend but it does impact the pool of designers we have to choose from when producing our work.

The decline in original photography in favor of stock has been accelerated by the rise of the web. Most designers who work in interactive environments have less experience than print designers in commissioning and art directing original photography. If you have ever been involved in a web development project, you know that the client is expected to supply most if not all of the photography. Art directing photography is not part of most interactive designers’ skill set.

Here are some suggestions for upgrading the distinctiveness of the photography in your school promotions:

1. Understand that it is essential that the project’s art director define a specific photographic approach. I don’t care whether you call this person your art director, graphic designer or staff designer. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that the person who is responsible for the aesthetics of the communications program articulates the style and concept behind the photography. Normally, the photographic style is presented and approved during the design schematic phase. The designer uses stock photography or images scanned from magazines or other publications to indicate the desired style. You approve this style before moving ahead with the project.
   If the designer cannot articulate what he wants to accomplish with the photography and what makes it distinctive, you should push him to do so. This is his responsibility. Your entire creative team needs a clear  sense of the photographic style before proceeding with project development.
   (I am going to piss off my many friends who produce viewbooks for a living, but the following needs to be said: do NOT hire someone to develop a viewbook who will send a photographer to campus prior to presenting and gaining approval for a design schematic. This practice, which remains common at schools and universities, is a major reason for the sameness and mediocrity of much viewbook photography.)
2. Interview a number of different photographers for your project. Most photographers who make some part of their living off of educational work are jacks-of-all-trades. They need to be. If you ask one of these photographers if he can deliver the style set out in the design schematic, he will say yes. But this is not necessarily the case. In truth, all photographers, no matter how talented, have styles and approaches they are more or less comfortable with. A portraitist can’t necessarily do good environmental work. Someone accustomed to doing editorial might not be a good choice for stylized black & whites. You need to scrutinize a number of different photographers for a major project to find the one who is truly best suited for what you want to accomplish. You should never hire someone who does not have any work in his portfolio suggestive of the style you want to achieve. (Need I say, it is virtually impossible to produce distinctive work using an in-house photographer.)
   The screening process for photographers is enormously helpful in preparing for the photo shoot. An art director might have a general idea of what he wants to accomplish with the photography. The photographer will have a much more detailed understanding of the technical and practical issues involved in getting the results the art director desires. By talking to a number of photographers, you will learn a great deal about the best way to realize the art director’s vision and plan the shoot.
3. Devote time and energy to developing a shoot list and planning the shoot. Prior to the shoot, it is very important to engage in detailed planning to map out the time, subject matter and framing of shots. Conversations with the photographer will give you a sense of how much time you need to devote to a particular shot and what resources you might need to pull in.
   In most cases, you will want to schedule a scouting session during which you can show the photographer various environments and perspectives and get his input on the feasibility of certain concepts.  Paying the photographer to scout the location prior to the shoot adds to the expense of the project but more than pays for itself in the quality and added efficiency during the shoot.
   It can also be helpful to recruit students and faculty prior to the shoot who are willing to participate as subjects. It wastes time and can diminish quality to simply plan to rope in students the day of the shoot while you are on location.
4. Give consideration to how you want to staff the shoot. Normally the photographer will come to the shoot with an assistant. Their primary responsibility is to obtain all of the images on the shoot list with the style and other technical parameters you have specified. It is enormously helpful to a shoot if you can provide additional staffing. Indeed, it would not be excessive to have three people in addition to the photographer and his assistant on the shoot. If possible, the art director himself should attend the shoot to ensure that the photographer is accomplishing the desired style. Nowadays with digital photography, the art director can approve an actual shot on-site, increasing efficiency significantly. It is also helpful to have someone at the shoot who is focussed on the content of the shots – whether all the small details in the frame, such as books, backgrounds, posters, clothing etc. are correct. Finally, it is useful to have someone who is good at working with the students and faculty posing for the shots – helping them feel comfortable and relaxed, fetching water and snacks, chatting with them during the technical set-up and roping in additional participants as needed.

If you follow these guidelines, you will increase your chances of producing distinctive photography and avoiding the sameness that plagues educational viewbooks.

Needless to say,  all the steps and comments made above apply to photography on the web as well as in print. If your goal is to advance your image, then it is important that your distinctive photographic style be employed across all platforms. It is not sufficient to feature wonderful distinctive photography in your print program and then resort to generic work on the web. Web projects place huge demands on photo stocks since they can involve hundreds of page that require photography. That raises the bar but does not change the requirement. Institutions that want to produce effective communications need to develop a distinctive style of photography and employ it consistently across both web and print. The same planning and deliberateness about visual resources is necessary for both.

Good luck with your next photo shoot!