Deutser
The Work Behind the Work
A Houston consultancy shot over two days, then deployed as the entire visual system of their brand.
Deutser sells change. Consulting, learning labs, assessments. Invisible work made of thinking, rooms and decisions. They needed it photographed without the clichés, and they needed enough of it to run a brand on.
Two days in their offices. A studio built inside their own space with three setups (white, the red lacquered panelling, and the library) so every sitter had more than one look to choose from, and rolling sessions so the firm kept working around us. Fifty-four finished headshots. Then the rooms themselves: the bricks on the table, the glass walls people write on, the light through the west windows.
Then they built the site on it. Not a gallery page: the service cards, the closing hero, and a different frame behind every item in the navigation. A firm of consultants and creators, people who do visual identity for a living, looked at the take and made it the brand.
“The test of a corporate take isn't the gallery. It's what the client builds with it.”The West Studios, on Deutser
Fifty-four finished headshots came off the two days; this is one frame per person, grouped by setup. The white seamless first, then the red panelling and the library. Everyone sat for more than one, so nobody had to settle for the single picture they were handed.
What they built with it.
A corporate take is only worth what the client does with it afterwards. Left, the frame as delivered. Right, where it ended up.
Full-bleed, the last thing before the footer, with “We love to help.” set over it. Their crop tightens in and loses the second face and most of the Post-it, which in the frame as delivered reads “Cornelius the COLLABOROCTOPUS.”
Learning Labs is this frame. Assessments is another from the same afternoon: someone writing on the glass wall. Both are published at 4500×2994, pixel-for-pixel the files we delivered.
Open their menu and the lobby is behind it: red lacquer, glass, two people mid-stride. Each nav item carries a different frame.
