“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.” – Cecil Beaton

Good photography is not hard to find. As a matter of fact, I have a number of good friends who are lords of the lens. Take Ben or Dave as examples.

What makes their portfolios good?  Aside from their intense commitment to their craft and years of education, they have individually grown into a style of their own.  Whether your project calls for a modern photographer with an affinity to night shots or large party photography with a strong rapport with filters, you are in good hands.

Style.

Style is what makes Judd Apatow movies posters easy to spot and keeps the readers of GQ flipping its pages.

Now I would be lying if I told you that I always used a professional for every project I worked on; most of the work I do requires a trip to istockphoto.com.  In fact, on a shoestring design project it’s perfectly fine using the ready-and-waiting work of hundreds of great—and thousands of poor—photographers.  However, as an article from The Wall Street Journal addresses, the more generic the photographs tend to be, the more popular they are.  There is even one humorous blog post that highlights this very principle.  The problem with this is that if you found an image that fits well with your company, what’s stopping your competitors from using the same image unintentionally?

By defining and adhering to a style that supports your brand image you are able to make yourself memorable, in control, and, most importantly, distinguishable.