A good friend and client recently asked me to write a post regarding how executive head shots have changed.
This is a very timely question to pose. I recently shot head shots for a client whose CEO has a very artistic background and had a very negative, almost guttural reaction to the idea of “subjecting” her own people, prospective clients, and the world to the idea of her people in front of a traditional backdrop. It was almost as if she saw it as oppressive. As a fellow artistically minded person, I can relate!
This is fast becoming a trend (with a few exceptions).
More and more, companies are developing their own personality. This is very important when you start to fully understand modern branding and how social media has played a role in shaping a company’s branding strategy.
The personalities of the people come together to form a corporate culture. More and more, that culture is almost synonymous with their brand. This is very much due to the role social media plays in marketing today.
It all coincides with the idea that companies are trying to be more friendly. Friendly to their customer, to the environment, and to their own people.
People want to work at a company that fits their personality. Customers want to do business with a company that is friendly to them and the world they live in.
Therefore, it is more common today for customers to be asking me to do head shots that are more relaxed, more “organic”, and more in line with their corporate personality. Which is more often the personalities of the key people. The days of the CEO in a “stuffed shirt” and tie, in front of a traditional backdrop with a typical 2 or 3 light boiler plate “portrait” type set up are fast coming to an end.
More often, clients are asking me to do work for them with the surrounding environment in the background used as a secondary, blurred out subject. Trees, grass, parts of their working environment, etc are becoming part of what makes a head shot more friendly.
Clothes, while still more business-like in nature, are starting to show the personality of the subject rather than the typical blue suit and tie of decades past.
However, many people are, indeed, having their key people photographed in what they are comfortable in. Even if it is a t-shirt and jeans. The thought being “This is who I am, if you want to do business with me, it is going to be because you accept that”. And this is actually very important in reaching potential customers who relate to people that are down to earth and “real”.
It is, more and more, about personality. And less and less about traditional “rules”.