Imagery

All imagery should be relevant – illustrating the content of the text and/or have context. It should be set in the "real world", not obviously staged and should depict realistic situations with "real" people and honest emotions.

You should avoid over-exaggerated model poses, obvious visual clichés or imagery that is colour graded or uses effects.

The majority of our available photography has been shot in a photojournalism (candid) style. If you're wondering what makes a fantatisc photojournalistic style image, then have a look at these examples from Time magazine.

We also use portraitue that singles out one subject. Usually we only do this when telling the story of an individual. You'll find approved portraits of teachers and students in the image library.

Text and logos

Care should be taken when positioning text and logos over imagery to ensure they are legible and not confused with the background of the photograph. Logo clear space principles should be adhered to where possible.

Use colour

Imagery should be bright and colourful whenever possible, however, pre-approved pictures downloaded from the Image Library have been edited already and shouldn’t need much more than a quick process to prepare them for your design. This includes converting to RGB for any digital or online work. The photograph should not be edited so far as to change the style of the image.

Show diversity

It is essential to demonstrate diversity throughout our communications, to appeal to our wide and varied audiences. Try to be inclusive across all your materials. Don’t try and include all ages, ethnicities, disabilities and genders in one image or document as it will look forced. Use a common sense approach.

Use interesting crops

Images can be cropped to fit the design better but take care when cropping to avoid changing the context too much. Ensure that you crop to the area of the image which is in focus. Many images have been deliberately framed wider to allow you some freedom with design.

Clip art is not our style

Clip art can make materials look amateurish and unprofessional and does little to reflect our brand, values or personality.

Make sure you know where every image is from and is licensed correctly. Many images in the photojournalism style we prefer are only available for editorial, not commercial use.

If a school provides you with images, ask them to provide documentation (and if necessary) permissions from the people shown in the photo.

The majority of our images are sourced via stock libraries, and we license them out based on the terms of our contract. Genrally, all images should be sourced in this way.

Images pulled from Google Images or other websites should never be used.

Images are available in the core brand resources section.