All designers recognize the importance of the imagery used in their work. Whether it is stock or specially commissioned original photography, the image chosen to convey an idea is critical.

Both stock and commissioned photography run the gamut from beautiful to banal. Whether it’s stock or not, making it all work is a matter of the skill and talent of the designer.

liska’s pix

STOCK: MOTOROLA CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP BROCHURE
In this report on corporate responsibility, Liska + Associates employed stock photography to tell a story and complement the statistical data included in the document. The images depicted the theme and idea of corporate citizenship, not necessarily actual events. “For the cover, we were lucky to find a sweet, unique stock image, but it was hard to find images about environmental responsibility that felt original,” says creative director Steve Liska.
Design firm: Liska + Associates, www.liska.com

ORIGINAL: NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL ANNUAL REPORT
The annual report for Northwestern Memorial Health in Chicago features original images by Tom Maday. Photography was used to illustrate the subjects within the text. Very specific events that took place at the hospital—all of which were centered around improved patient care—needed to be shown. “The images are more reportage,” says Liska. “Shooting images versus stock always creates a greater level of reality, but getting the triplets to stop crying and hold still makes you wonder if reality is better.”

huei’s pix

STOCK: MACY’S TV COMMERCIAL FOR STARDUST
This concept storyboard was for a 30-second TV commercial spot for the retailer Macy’s. It was done at Stardust, a motion graphics firm in Los Angeles, by designer Huei Peng. The theme of the spot is a fantasy shopping excursion in several big cities, including New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago. Because so many different elements were involved, “stock photography offered a diverse array of options to find the specific mood collage for each city portrayed,” says Peng. In order to enhance the shopping experience idea, proportions are exaggerated in these moving collages.
Design firm: Stardust, www.stardust.tv | Designer: Huei Peng, www.heyhupi.com

ORIGINAL: “SWAP” DESIGN FOR PERSONAL ART SHOW IN BERLIN
For the international design festival Design Mai in Berlin, Huei Peng created this piece called “City- Swap.” It is part of the SWAP-Project’s artwork and video installations that were exhibited by the Side-By- Side Network. (Side-By-Side is an international network of designers, architects and artists.) The content depicts an abstract view of a city, using different structures with a figure looking up to anticipate a “swapping” moment to another city. “The intent is to reflect an individual’s nomadic movement in searching for new meanings and experiences in life,” explains Peng. “Since this was a personal project, I wanted to have full control of how the piece was shot. Using my own photography helped to communicate my ideas quickly and directly, since I already had the shot I wanted in mind. Here I could repeatedly shoot the poster boards in different perspectives and then find the right ones to use in the work.”