As you presumably know, I am a print designer. The type of work I do is usually present in the marketing or sales department in any corporation. I design anything and everything printed on paper. Most print collateral is intentioned to promote, sale and or educate the audience.

Graphic elements are used to support the objective of the printed piece. In most case, especially in major print collateral these graphic elements tend to be stock photography. The amount of time spent on choosing the right photography is probably the most underrated element of designing for print.

Pictures say a thousand words!” said one brilliant person. And indeed they do!"

I used to work for an education research corporation and the printed material I produced while there was reports and brochurs Education predominately being supported by federal government, these collateral material where intended for government workers usually in the Department of Education . And my client would be the researcher or project director for certain contract. He/she would present me with all the information needed to design the piece. For the most part I would choose stock photo and layout the piece while being within the specifications of the client. Corporate clientele have a propensity to be very anal about the layout. As indeed they should be, after all it’s my job is to shed my clients’ work in the best light possible.

One of my favorite clients was in a charge of Adult Education contract from the Department of Education. His projects, usually related to Adult Ed pumped millions for our company. My role here was to create reports and brochures showing the success of those contract implemented projects.

Consequently, I would pick nice photos of adults in classrooms to use. The client would accordingly suggest that I was to use photos with minorities. The intention is to have reports that show that the projects are helping poor black folks. ‘You know hard are it is to find stock photography of adult black people in classrooms. Well, it’s nearly impossible’. It just so happens that black people are not present in stock photography, particularly outside of mainstream categories.

No, we need photos of minorities excluding Asians, some African Americans with a couple of Hispanics thrown in.”

Eventually, I suggested that they shoot some photos next time they are in a classroom. Which they did and finally I had access a few decent acceptable photos. Three Blacks to one Hispanic ratio; if its more than ten people I could throw one or two Asians and Whites. Month after month I used the same photos and my clients couldn’t be happier.

I ultimately left the company, and am now working as a print designer for a corporation that sells database software to other corporations. In attendance in the marketing department, I design material to help sell and market the software. This time the target market are engineers, software architects and head honchos for major corporations throughout the world.

The type of stock photography I need for the print collateral leans to being of a business nature. There are tons of good photos with varieties of people in specified category. One of the first materials I produced was a booth for a tradshow in Europe. I layedout something which I thought at the time persuaded the message my client intended for the audience at the tradeshow in which the booth would be present. The photo I used just happened to have an African American on it. After presenting my draft to the marketing execs I was told to change the graphic. Without intention, it happened that I used another photography with an African American. Since this subject of this nature tends to be of a sensitive nature, they were hesitant to come out and say, “Please, No Black People!”

It was ultmately explained to me that it was not effective marketing to put images of African Americans if the audience is located in Europe. The exact words were," its a sad reality but its real."