Together with our tone of voice, our visual identity serves to make the British Council brand distinctive, and photography has a major role in this.

Ensuring a consistent style and quality of photography will strengthen the brand across all its different areas of activity. Wherever possible, you should try to use strong colourful images of aspirational people enjoying learning opportunities from the UK, together with photographic examples of creativity.

But it’s not just the choice of image that makes photographs suitable for the British Council brand. Subjects can be made more ‘on brand’ by choosing a distinctive style of photography or by cropping an image in a particular way. White space, cut-outs, out-of-focus backgrounds or foregrounds, and faces looking directly at the camera can all contribute to expressing our brand personality and making it distinctive.

So how can we choose photographs that reflect our brand? Go back to our values to create yourself a brief, as follows, then cross check with our personality and tone of voice – because this is what we’re trying to achieve visually as well as in words.

VALUING PEOPLE

Try and express this with photographs that create a sense of intimacy and interaction – for example, using more than one person in shot, with eye contact between them. Aim to show real people in real – as opposed to obviously staged – situations, to help convey the value we put on people, as well as a sense of friendliness and approachability.

Try techniques like cropping-in tightly on one or two individuals, so that the viewer can see their expressions and emotional responses – this can make the image more engaging and personal. And talk to photographers about other techniques, like using ‘fast’ lenses (those with an aperture of f2.8 or less), so that backgrounds appear out of focus and subjects are highlighted from background clutter.

INTEGRITY

A strong sense of integrity can be created in photography simply by eliminating clutter. Single, strong images surrounded by clear space focus the viewer’s attention and demonstrate a kind of ‘visual honesty’: we have nothing to hide.

Photographs using people should show direct eye contact with the viewer, since this also suggests a feeling of openness and trust.

MUTUALITY

To convey mutuality make sure that your subjects are inclusive, and be careful to include a representative range of ethnic and minority groups, either within a single image or collectively across a series of images. Take note of the previous suggestions about content, cropping and style to help underline the sense of building relationships by bringing the viewer into closer intimacy with the subject.

CREATIVITY

Creativity can be expressed as much through the style of shot as the choice of image. Cropping or framing images in interesting ways can create a sense of drama and engagement with the viewer. You might do this by shifting the focus of an image to one side, away from the centre of the frame, for example, or by taking a new look at familiar images by photographing them from different angles. Again, creativity can also be enhanced through the use of distinctive cameras and lenses. Talk to your photographer about what you’re trying to achieve, which essentially is to demonstrate that we are dynamic, refreshing and creative in the way we approach things.

PROFESSIONALISM

Professionalism is perhaps best expressed by maintaining high standards of quality in photography, both technically and artistically. It is also communicated through strong, single-minded images that are bold in content, composition and the striking use of colour or black and white. Using photographs of this kind demonstrates focus and commitment, and shows us to be professional, confident and authoritative.

For more specific technical instructions on briefing photographers, please refer to the Identity standards intranet site and to the image bank created for the Promotional Toolkit.

IMAGE SELECTION

We use two types of photograph within our Promotional Toolkit but the principles are the same for our other communications. Large primary images for visual impact, and smaller secondary images to give a sense of theme and overall direction. You should always use a primary image on the front cover of promotional print items such as brochures. On the front cover of corporate items, you can then use secondary images to support the main image.

When you are creating internal layouts, please use secondary images to expand and broaden the range of products and services on offer. Try also to include some primary images as the difference in scale between the two types of image will create interest and visual rhythm.

We already have an image bank of primary images within the Promotional Toolkit. These photographs were commissioned with our brand values in mind. When you are choosing secondary images, it is important to do the same.

COMMISSIONING PHOTOGRAPHY ON BEHALF OF THE BRITISH COUNCIL

When commissioning or using photography, please refer to the data protection instructions and the detailed guidance on briefing photographers and selecting photographs, which can be found on the Identity standards intranet site.

If as part of your commission, you have been asked to manage a photoshoot, please ensure that we are licensed by the photographer to use the photographs on any future British Council publication – not just the current project. This is to ensure we can have maximum use of the photographs and distribute them via Snapshots – see below.

PHOTO LIBRARY - 'ASSET BANK'

The British Council has its own new, searchable web-based image bank called Asset Bank which will soon replace Snapshots. The Asset Bank resource contains over 8,000 new images – all of which were specially taken in and around British Council offices and feature staff and British Council customers. Please refer to the user guide on the Asset Bank and Snapshots home pages for further information. All images in the Asset Bank are downloadable directly from the site in a number of formats and resolutions.

You can access the Asset Bank by going to: http://assets.britishcouncil.org