As part of a global campaign, we were hired by an international agency to create a series of images for Xero. The brand brief we received was all about framing real people in real moments. Mid-process, in their element, and nothing overly staged. Any technology feature would be part of the story, not overpowering it. This is something fresh for us, because Xero is a service that lives online. And yet, we were told to focus on the people behind the business instead of showcasing technology as the main hero.
We love it when we receive briefs that are human first, focusing on life in motion that is anchored in joy. The visuals should feel authentic and are embedded in real moments.
Aligning the client’s brief to the actual session
Once we receive a brief from the client, we will usually start the planning process weeks in advance. Everything from the lighting, composition, direction of talents and environment needs to work together to achieve this goal. For this campaign, we featured Xero’s real clients in their natural office environment in Kuala Lumpur.
One of the requirements was to ensure we utilise as much natural lighting as possible in the photos. However, the challenge we faced was that every office looks different, and not every corner is blessed with beautiful large windows with light streaming in. So we had to think outside the box and create different scenes outside of the office itself. For example, we took some photos along a common corridor leading to this client’s office. The environment was still relevant to the story. So it was a win-win situation.
We use a combination of a directed approach with a photojournalistic outcome. Generally, we give direction to our talents so that they understand the outcome of each scene, and yet, we let the moments unfold naturally. This gives us the best of both worlds… we control the background, the direction of the natural light, and our composition, and then we give space for people to interact.
If you are planning to create human-first lifestyle stock images of your team at work, do drop us a message so that we can start a conversation.
