I've Made Every Brand Imagery Mistake There Is.

Here's What Each One Actually Cost.

I couldn’t believe it. This research session began entirely unplanned, which is just how it ended too. I decided to research similar businesses to mine to see what they offered, where they were based and what markets they were actually aiming for. I was on my third website - good strong layout; lots I could learn from here and there it was. The exact same image as I had on my website header. Where did they get it from? And why was it on their site? The colours didn’t even fit. Come to think of it, it didn’t really fit that well on my site either.

This moment taught me a lot about the true cost and value of strategic brand imagery. We don’t often think about our brand imagery until the final stages of a creative project, but effective visual assets need to be planned well in advance. Its precisely this reason its often treated as the final finishing touch, the cherry on-top of your cake. When you look at big, successful brands and how they treat their imagery, you see it’s not a finishing touch, but a credibility signal. You don’t see Apple using stock images or unedited photos - they have a refined look and appearance consumers expect, and as soon as that is broken, their brand image is disrupted. Making this choice reactively, choosing speed and budget over brand value, and be costly for your brand.

Today, I’ll be diving into 5 ways to start collating a library of imagery. Each way has their pros and cons and some would argue there are certain “correct” ways of making good imagery, but the truth is each brand has its own best solution at different points during it’s life.

Stock Brand Imagery

The story I told at the beginning of the article happened early in my freelance career. I had used free Stock imagery from Unsplash and I thought my site looked amazing. I didn’t think about how free imagery is accessible by all 6 billion odd people on the planet. I didn’t think about what this image really communicated.

The stock image in question, maybe you've seen this one before?

When I realised the error of my ways, all I could think about was when you enter the room during a party and see someone with the exact same outfit as you on. That person is nothing like you, yet they are wearing the same shirt, same trousers, same shoes. What is everyone else thinking? Do they think we are related?

AI Brand Imagery

AI talk is everywhere, so I’ll be brief here. In terms of creating imagery, AI offers unmatched speed at the cost of accuracy (most of the time). Rather that tell you all about it, I’ll take a more refreshing route, and I'll show you.

I’m currently setting up a bit of a side business called Michael James Design Co where I’ll be selling all my spare creative bits and pieces as well as prints and products which are sitting on my hard drive in their digital formats. I created a brand identity system and I’ve taken some photos of my dad’s workshop, which is the vibe I’m going for. I also decided to generate some pictures using some different AI images models like Gemini and Leonardo (all free versions).

AI image generation telling a story of fiction ( this never happened)

The first image shows a logo which isn’t mine in a workshop which isn’t mine and a man which isn’t me. By image 5, we get to a point where I think it looks okay, but in truth I’m not 100% happy with it. I tried to include one with an image of me in it, but Gemini isn’t allowed to put people into images.

On the other had are some images I took 9 years ago on my phone at the time. The colours are a little off, but it captures something the AI images can never touch - soul. Every images tells a story which is authentic and rooted in my brands values. That day, my dad and I really did hang out doing wood work all day. With the images i showed before, none of that is true.

My Dad measuring...again (this actually took place)

DIY Photography

I had a close friend who became a client; she started up her own business created bespoke dog collars to sell online. I designed an identity and e-commerce site for her and her business grew, but imagery became a bottleneck for her as she kept release small batch products and I wasn’t able to schedule in photo shoots all that often.

One chic looking doggo

She wanted to learn the basics as she was able to update her site no problem, so she invested in a few tools and a simple light box to take product shots on a white background. It took some time for her to get her eye in, but she started to experiment more and enjoy the process. She even began modelling the products on her own dogs which added in a bit of personality to the mix.

Learning photography isn’t for everyone though, as its a pretty time intensive thing to learn and requires patience, creativity and understanding of light and composition. The flip side is you have images in which you have full ownership of.

Investing Professional Brand Imagery

During my first project in the whisky sector, I worked on a whisky subscription box. I attended a photo shoot for the newly released range of boxes and whiskies. The founder had hired a photography he’d worked with before and rather than arriving at a studio or a bar, we arrived at the photographers flat. He setup a pretty low budget backdrop using some oak beams, lightning and a few props. Even with a startup budget, the shoot turned out really well and we got some fantastic shots of the whole product range.

Professional photography doesn’t have to break the bank

Not all photo shoots go so smoothly as the upfront cost here is substantial and you don’t see anything for a few days until all the images are edited. Quality also depends on a photographer who is a good fit and understands your business. That being said, assets you own outright and can repurpose for digital and print purposes earn their money back tenfold.

The Hybrid Approach to Brand Imagery

The final option when it comes to imagery is hiring someone who appreciates the strengths and weaknesses of all the previous methods of producing imagery for a brand. We will refer to this person as an image strategist for the purposes of this post, and they have a keen eye for how imagery fits into a brand and which methods are the best fit. I myself have been in this role.

I work on a project for 2 new whisky releases for a brand called Glen Braid. The artwork was to be based on Glen Etive and after sourcing some paid stock imagery, I began to overlay some colour to create a monotone effect and edit the sky. This was fine for the labels, but for larger format printing and wide website headers, the image was still too small, so I used the Generative expand tool in Photoshop which uses AI to generate “extra” image. I was working with a pretty large resolution here so I could save it as a print file. Finally, I was able to apply this to the box to create a truly unique hero image.

The edited image showing a moodier scene.

I didn’t have to use every tool, and the hybrid approach require design judgement to know which tool to reach for, it means more decisions and a strategic eye. Without these, the approach looks like indecision dressed up as flexibility: you use the tools because you can, not because it provides the best result for the project.

Takeaway

These approaches aren’t ranked from best to worst, nor are they supposed to sway you away from AI or toward hiring someone. They should make you ask yourself “what does this specific image need to say?”

Going with the cheaper, easier option for every piece of imagery will create a cheap and easy look for your brand, similarly if you hire a premium photographer, you’ll be applying premium imagery to your brand. These are the tools and methods attached to a moment within a project.

When was the last time you made a purchasing decision because of an image that swayed you? How much do you think that cost vs the return on investment?

Images don’t have to be expensive, they just need to be considered.

-Mike