CONTENT & CREATIVE / A PRACTICAL ANSWER
What should an art direction brief for website photography include?
The short answer
An art direction brief should explain what the imagery must communicate, where it will appear and which practical constraints affect production. It needs subject, framing, usage and delivery decisions before a shoot or generation task begins. Attractive images can still be unusable if they do not fit the website's real layouts.
What to prepare
Map the hero, card, detail and mobile uses. Specify subjects, permissions, brand context and the space needed around text. Distinguish photographs of real people or products from illustrative concepts, and agree how each will be described.
How to assess the work
Request a delivery set appropriate to the intended crops and resolution. Test a sample in the design before producing many assets. Record credits and permitted usage, then retain an organised source archive so later edits do not depend on finding a compressed web export.
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE / NOT A CLIENT RESULT
Make it concrete.
A property photograph that works as a wide hero may lose its important features in a narrow card. Planning both crops during art direction is more reliable than discovering that conflict after the shoot.
Before you commission
- Define the communication purpose and placements.
- Confirm permissions, provenance and disclosure.
- Test representative desktop and mobile crops.
A plain-text worksheet. Downloading does not send us your details.
FROM THE QUESTION TO THE WORK
A useful next step.
Bring the decision, the existing situation and the information you have. We can help define a scope before you commit to a wider project.
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