The Vault

Corporate Executive Branding

Organizations are made of people. Matt’s corporate branding work shows the leaders, teams, workplaces and details behind a name, with the consistency a brand needs and none of the generic quality of conventional corporate photography.

The aim is visual coherence without stripping away the individuality and humanity of the people who make a company what it is.

Cushman & Wakefield 26

Day 1 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA for this global commercial real estate behemoth.
The trick with lifestyle images is to keep them natural looking - from the lighting to the poses and expressions. Matt used the reflectiion from the beautiful conference table in the Chicago office to add interest and dimension to this shot.
@mcguirephoto assist
@danielle_dettore MUA

The rooftop at 225 Wacker Drive is a magical place to shoot - flowers and city views in every direction.
Day 1 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA.
The trick with lifestyle images is to keep them natural looking - from the lighting to the poses and expressions.

Day 1 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA for this global commercial real estate behemoth.
Some of the common areas in the office feature living "green" walls that the client wanted to showcase. A strobe in the background suggests sun and obscures otherwise distracting elements.
@mcguirephoto assist
@danielle_dettore MUA

Day 2 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA for this global commercial real estate behemoth.
We staged several shots in this St Louis, MO meeting room with two dozen people. It was a fairly gray day outside, which required us to lean on the amazing technology in the camera and expert placement of supplemental strobes in order to keep things looking light and bright. Capturing authentic expressions in contrived situations is also a challenge with this sort of work.
@mcguirephoto assist
@raelynncantrall MUA

Day 2 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA for this global commercial real estate behemoth.
One of many shots in this St Louis, MO office. While this this was captured at noon, it was made to look as if the sun was just breaking through using a powerful strobe light with an orange gel on it. Arranging people and furniture must be done quickly so as to keep their interest. Tethering the camera to a computer helps this process because Matt can shoot and see the rest very large very quickly.
@mcguirephoto assist
@raelynncantrall MUA

Day 2 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA for this global commercial real estate behemoth.
This is from St Louis, MO office. It is always great when the client has a talented artist on staff who can create amazing drawings on the boards in the background. While the lighting may look natural, it was anything but. At least three strobes are working to light up the room and the subjects.
@mcguirephoto assist
@raelynncantrall MUA

Day 2 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA for this global commercial real estate behemoth.
This is from St Louis, MO office. One of the final shots of the day, this was executed in the foyer and required careful placement of the chairs and lights to ensure everything looked as natural as possible.
@mcguirephoto assist
@raelynncantrall MUA

Day 3 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA for this global commercial real estate behemoth.
This image was created at a client site in the Dallas suburbs to showcase the service side of the business. Due to the scale, we needed to use the ambient light. A strobe with a colored gel to help match it to the ambient light was used to light up the subjects.
@mcguirephoto assist
@raelynncantrall MUA

Day 3 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA for this global commercial real estate behemoth.
This image was created at a client site in the Dallas suburbs to showcase the service side of the business. In this case, we overpowered the ambient light and created the effect with two strobes. People are often pointing at things in these kind of photographs. It is one of just a few ways to show collaboration in a still image.
@mcguirephoto assist
@raelynncantrall MUA

Day 5 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA for this global commercial real estate behemoth.
Taken in the LA office, Matt got up on a step ladder and shot down on this collaborating pair.
@mcguirephoto assist

Day 3 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA for this global commercial real estate behemoth.
All ambient light was used on this relatively long shot of staff members staged and interacting in the chairs along the windows. You can seldom beat the light in LA. No wonder everybody wants to be a photographer in that city!
@mcguirephoto assist

Ecompass 18

Kaveny 36

Parakala 13

Valavanis 10

Various 40

Hoey & Farina
This editorial shot was taken in a shared conference room in their Clark Street offices during a day which saw us capture headshots, executive portraits, lifesylte images and video vignettes for website bio headers.
@mcguirephoto assist

Matt and team did their best to make things look warm and inviting in the Chicago Loop law office of Robert D Ahlgren and Associates on a cold, dark and short day in January. This shoot was a combo video / stills shoot so Matt used the constant light that was set up for filming to create this image of a lawyer interacting with her clients.
@mcguirephoto assist & motion
@danielle_dettore mua

Matt and team did their best to make things look warm and inviting in the Chicago Loop law office of Robert D Ahlgren and Associates on a cold, dark and short day in January. This shoot was a combo video / stills shoot so Matt used the constant light that was set up for filming to create this image of a lawyer interacting with her clients.
@mcguirephoto assist & motion
@danielle_dettore mua

The Chairman of the Board and CEO of a very large global commercial real estate firm pause for a posed discussion over fake information on a laptop screen. Matt and team had just thirty minutes to create a series of lifestyle images and 3/4 length portraits of these incredibly business executives. They finished in 20 minutes, much to everybody's delight.
@mcguirephoto assist

The power trio - COO, CEO and CFO - were reluctantly willing subjects for an intensive shoot at Network Perception, an infrastructure security company based in the Lyric Opera building in Chicago. A large strobe was diffused by an 8x8' silk panel outside the door to the rooftop to look like sun while another light behind and to the left of Matt lit the front of the subjects. We did five or six takes with the gentlemen walking forward a few steps at a time to keep it loose and natural.
@mcguirephoto assist
@fulnecky assist
@danielle_dettore mua

The VP of marketing talks to a colleague in this collaborative stock image for Network Perception. Matt and his team created headshots for 30, executive portrait series for the three C's and a library of corporate stock images during this busy and efficient day at their Chicago offices while the whole team was in for meetings from around the country.
@mcguirephoto assist
@fulnecky assist
@danielle_dettore mua