A Question of Style

From fashion to art, literature to music, style means different things to different people. Often intangible but always obvious, style can be usefully defined as:

"A distinctive manner which permits the grouping of work or image into related categories."

From a practical perspective, we can use style to convey messages about ourselves and our businesses. We simply have to engage the cognitive faculty of our audience with grace and beauty that clearly communicates our clarity of vision.

We’ve broken individual components of style from four recent commissions to demonstrate how this can be achieved:

Andy Hamer is CEO of Codebook International: a software firm providing business solutions to architects and facility managers. Creating an open consultative feel was important for an organisation whose customers’ approach to business is relaxed but professional.

• Expression is relaxed and confident. Head is balanced and upright, being neither aloof nor 'over-friendly'.
• Glasses as a prop (rather than on the face) suggesting seniority and someone who works with detailed documents rather than their hands.
• Pose, with the glasses, suggests a college lecturer: someone with professional knowledge.
• Open shirt and lack of tie exposing neck: showing trust and openness.

Xertec’s Strapline ‘we don’t just copy’ suggests a company that is proud to be different. Their customer base of designers, printers and city traders is eclectic and edgy; they wanted headshots that stood out from the crowd.

Female business portraits can be tricky. The challenge is to balance professionalism with natural feminine elegance.

Nirvana Debonaire design and create smart clothing for young boys – aged 1 to 13. Young entrepreneur Ashley Thanni founded the firm which has grown steadily from startup in August 2013. Ashley wanted a headshot that spoke of new growth, naturalness and entrepreneurship.

Do your portraits match your company’s core objectives? Why not send us your current portraits or point us to your website? We’ll feedback our impressions and you can see if that matches your mission statement and the type of company you want to be.

https://www.studio-grey.net/a-question-of-style/