Best Practices

We’re pretty excited about Mike Weymouth’s new book How Photography Can Make You a Better Painter, just published by Graphis, Inc.   It’s educational and provocative for the painter – as well as a painter-appreciator.  It is a visual delight in the way it is designed and with its photographs and original Mike Weymouth paintings.  It’s also a verbal delight with unexpected turns of phrase and points of view.

We were asked this question by a potential client several weeks ago, who was commissioning a website redesign. Of course we gave the precise answer, 24 months, based on plugging into a redesign algorithm the site traffic, the online sales, the relatively modest size of the site, the brand index, the competitive site metrics, the x-factor of new web technologies and best practices, and the loudness of the moon-howling by disgruntled employees and distraught executives.  There were other variables, of course, but they were lost in the howling, and we did answer 24 months.

One of my favorite writers, Italo Calvino, published a book of essays about fiction in 1985 called Six Memos for the Next Millennium, that describes the characteristics of what fiction can and should be. The titles of his essays can serve as a useful construct for many creative endeavors, including websites. Asked to speak about trends in web design at Boston College in September, I used Calvino’s construct to talk about those trends.

There are essentially two successful video formats for a CEO to talk to shareholders in an online report: eyes on the camera and an interview format. The eyes-on-the-camera approach can be quite powerful if done properly, primarily because the CEO is talking directly to the viewer just as he or she would in a normal conversation.

There are several ways to create a more interesting look and feel with an interview video. This is particularly relevant with video used in the AR 2.0 format, which tends to be more effective if it is short and crisp and to the point.

The so-called talking head shot is yet another way to project a CEO’s personality. Depending on the CEO’s degree of animation, a talking head shot can be very effective. Be mindful that when shooting talking heads, it is better to use a fixed light and a motor drive rather than a strobe.

Ask any IR specialist what the most important photo in the company’s
annual report is and you’ll get the same answer every time: the CEO
photo. Get it right and it’s smooth sailing. Get it wrong and watch
out. It’s best to hire an experienced photographer, but there are also
a number of steps, tricks, and tips YOU can keep in mind that will help
ensure success.

Many of our artistic sensibilities about executive photos come from the paintings of the Old Masters, in particular the paintings of the Dutch Masters who painted the original business merchants of their day.  A trip through Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum is much like a trip through a gallery of American corporate portraits, with the exception of the medium in which the executives are rendered.

One thing that can set a new website apart — strong, differentiated imagery. We find that getting that imagery early in the process helps accelerate and crystalize the creative effort.

A year ago, Life Technologies (formerly Invitrogen) decided to go online with an immersive, interactive annual report format that we call AR 2.0. The online annual report evolved and was updated throughout the year. This year’s annual report also used the AR 2.0 format — and just won an LACP award.