How to get great brand photos for your garden design website
The lovely Keri from Studio Fitzpatrick tending seedlings in her greenhouse on a brand photography shoot for a garden designer
This is part two of our mini-series on how to get great brand photography is you’re a garden or landscape designer, featuring brand photographer, Meg Lovell. Part 1 was an intro, focussing on the importance and benefits of brand photography: ‘How does a garden designer get great photography (plus why it’s important)?’.
When it comes to the image on your website, it’s vital that every page tells your potential clients what they need to know. We can’t stress this enough: focus on what it will be like to work with you; your vision and way of working; where and how you gather inspiration; and how you can help bring their dreams to life.
Great brand photography is all about how you help clients, not how great you are or blowing your trumpet. That should be self-evident, as customers don’t want to hear bragging; they want to know how you can help them.
Brand photos are particularly important for garden designers, as garden design is so visual, so it’s crucial that your unique standout standout style as a designer comes across strongly to prospective clients.
Wildings is a design agency in Devon. Our studio is based in Torquay, South Devon, and we provide branding for creative, hospitality and lifestyle businesses across Devon and the UK (like garden designers, interior designers, architects, floral designers). If you’d like to find out more, explore our branding for small businesses or contact this branding agency in Devon →
Brand photos to include on your garden design home page
A well-crafted home page should briefly introduce you and help guide your audience to the places they need information. Think through your hero imagery that says ‘this is me’ in a single image, and use variants of images showing who you are, where you work, your services and the work you are most proud of.
Although important, your homepage tends to act as a signpost for the rest of the important content on your website. As such, if we focus on images we need for the other website pages, we’ll be able to use images which convey the topic. A good photographer will give you options and different shots and Eagles for each of the images, so they can be used on the homepage.
Meg says:
Make sure your photographer considers aspect ratio (the height and width of a shot), and you get the right size photo for your needs. For banner style shots you’ll need landscape and you’ll need a mix of portrait and landscape shots throughout the site. Images will need different aspect ratios if you want to use them in your marketing, such as Facebook, Instagram, Houzz, The List, LinkedIn etc, so ensure you get a variety of shots in different orientations so you can use the right image in the right place.
How to enhance high-traffic garden design webpages with brand photography
Your about page will be about your studio or business, and it’s a critical one. The ‘about’ or ‘about us’ page on a website is one of the most visited pages on a website. Why? Because people want a human connection with the garden designer they are going to invest with - they want to know who’s behind the facade, i.e., you!
A good place to start is perhaps a potted history or something about your studio ethos. Talk about your Unique Selling Point (USP), whether you’re an organic gardener or someone who creates environmentally sensitive spaces, an urban gardener, or someone who likes to recycle materials. Whatever makes you different, use this to tell your audience more about you.
The about page is the place to talk about you and your team, where you work as well as how you work. It’ll likely have something on your process and the stages involved from writing a brief to the tender process and lastly the planting and plant procurement stages.
Each area on the about page also requires imagery and a story that helps prospective clients get a sense of what it will be like to work with you and understand what they can expect.
Meg says:
If you’re not sure if your workspace is suitable or photogenic, don’t let that put you off! Consider borrowing a friend’s house, rent an AirBnb for the day, or consider whether a client would be happy for you to make use of their garden for this part of the shoot.
Find a model (a friend, colleague or client?) who can act as the “client” for a few shots - it’s easier to stage this than attempt to capture photos during an actual client consultation!
Types of images to include on your about page if you’re a garden designer
Headshots of the team whether formal or relaxed
Your studio space and images of you at work, you could even show some local images if you are well-known in a particular area
Designing, creating mood boards, design walls with images of inspiration
Images that reflect the various stages of the garden design journey: how you collate a brief, how you sketch design garden spaces, working up designs on CAD, tendering process, meeting with landscapers, on-site build, plant procurement or planting out
Showing how you entertain clients whether you are a studio that does that in your offices, in client homes, drawing inspiration together on a day trip or seeing something together in another gardener’s space
How to use brand photography on your garden design services webpage
The services page will describe more about what you offer and this is a great way to showcase what is unique about your studio.
Whether you are a designer who gets inspiration from walking in the woods, visiting formal gardens, historical gardens, books, or from other spaces like the theatre, art galleries or your local parks, this is a great way to tell your story.
There will be obvious services to consider such as planting plans, full design, planning days, procurement trips, and maintenance. These are great ways to visually showcase what you do.
Meg says:
Choose images that illustrate aspects of your service, so clients can visualise what it’s like to work with you. Remember, though, that you want the aesthetics of your website to be cohesive and match a certain standard, so this isn’t the place for iPhone snaps! Ask your photographer to help you stage some ‘process’ shots so you have visuals to share here that match the aesthetic of the rest of your site.
Types of images to include on your garden design services page
Location images in places that inspire you
Your materials and drawing equipment
Images that reflect your service offering such as plans, selecting tree specimens, reviewing materials and hard landscaping/custom finishes
Guiding your clients or team of contractors on site
Finished gardens of your work
Plants and flowers in garden spaces that show your signature style and plants that feature heavily in your work
How to enhance your garden design portfolio webpage with branded photos
A portfolio should be a well-crafted page that features the kind of work you’d like to get more of. It’s better to have fewer projects that resonate with where you are at in your career than showcase everything.
Your prospective clients need to be able to imagine themselves in the space and buy the dream and feeling you are selling, so that needs to fit with where you are in your business. One problem area we’ve noticed for garden designers is getting access to gardens they designed which look good enough to photograph. Many homeowners often ask for low-maintenance gardens and truth be told they mistake low-maintenance for NO-maintenance and therefore some plants don’t make it.
After three years, where gardens haven’t been well tended can be forlorn, with gaps in the borders and things beginning to look like they need a refresh. Whilst this is not always the case, it’s a real need for designers who hope to go back and see these gardens and capture images for their portfolio and feel are met with challenges in the space.
Plans to make for your garden design portfolio page ahead of a photo shoot
Getting portfolio shots can be a challenge so think ahead and make plans before booking your photographer. Arrange with the homeowner to pay a visit and make an honest assessment about what can be photographed in your portfolio garden. Do you need to do a bit of work pruning things, or even bringing in some plants to fill border holes?
Meg says:
When you’re speaking to your client about having their garden photographed, gently set expectations around timing, access and preparation. The best time of day for garden photography is often within an hour of sunrise, so your photographer may need early-morning access to the garden.
Check the garden the day before
“Always check the garden the day before- if last-minute pruning or tidying is needed, plan on doing it then rather than the day of the shoot, to save time and e.g. avoid footprints across the grass.
Styling & props
“Make sure the plants and any hard landscaping are the stars of the show! Make sure if props are used, they cohesively work with the palette and texture of the garden so they work in adding to the visuals and don’t jar and detract from your design and work.”
The weather
“Naturally, shoots are weather dependent, and this includes wind as well as rain - chat to your photographer about how they handle this, and let your client know you may need some flexibility with access to account for weather issues”
Pack & prepare ahead of the shoot day
“Bring more than you think you’ll need; if it doesn’t get used, that’s fine! Work with your photographer to agree a shot and props list- they should support you in the planning process to ensure these are comprehensive and realistic for the time you have.”
Think about the seasons
“Helping your clients understand the evolution of a garden throughout the year will help them understand why you will make certain choices about the structure and help them think through the specimen size of trees too.”
Types of images for the portfolio page on your garden design website
Wide shots of the space
Close shots of details
Planting choices
Lighting
Furniture (where part of your procurement process)
Lifestyle images (e.g. if you’ve created a BBQ area, pool or special area)
Standout features or specific design choices
Water features
Hard landscaping
How to boost your ‘contact us’ page with brand photography
The contact page is a great space to show the studio or your location base, it’s also a chance to show you at work and also answer any FAQs. Do think about what those might be and whether there are any supporting images that you can show such as your services guide, or a media kit.
Print off any visuals, even if they are digital, and set the scene for these alongside some seasonal florals and stationery.
Meg says:
Having a handful of open, engaging portraits of you looking at the camera is so useful here, but chat to your photographer about capturing a range of facial expressions and moods. Most importantly, you want to look like you in the images, but having a variety of images to choose from will enable you to strike a different note across different platforms.
Types of images for your garden design contact page include
Studio shot
Designer shot at work
Guides and onboarding documents styled nicely as if being read
Best brand photos for a garden designer’s blog
If you deeply understand who your customers are you will also be able to understand the questions they will be asking and the types of things that matter to them. When you’re clear on this you can also think through images that might be able to speak to the topics you want to unpack. Here's some suggested imagery that would accompany blog posts if these were important factors for your target customers.
Meg says:
Brainstorm some blog post ideas before your shoot and ask your photographer to work with you to create shot lists for them. Having some more general images in reserve is always handy- a close-up of notebooks and a pen, for example.
Types of posts for a garden designer’s blog page & suggested imagery
Is water an important feature clients want in their gardens? Get images of water features or ways to introduce water in all types of gardens
Does your client understand they will need a garden shed to put the tools and the bikes? Showcase clever ways of hiding the shed or how you’ve managed to fit it into a small garden
Do your clients keep asking about drought-tolerant plants? Show some great schemes in a range of colour palettes
Helping clients understand garden spending. Talk them through how they can make savings and where their money goes, such as through photographing trees in a nursery and showing the size and price steps, photographing materials and talking through pricing
Ready for your next shoot? Thinking ahead about the images you need for your website and for your marketing will help you brief your photographer. Together you can work out what you can achieve in one day, and where you might need to book another session.
So that’s part two of our mini series on the impact and practicalities of brand photography for garden designers, or if you‘re a brand in the garden space. If you’ve not already read it, do check out part one: ‘How does a garden designer get great photography (plus why it’s important)?‘. If you’d like to learn more from us on website design or get visual inspiration, follow @wildings.studio on Instagram or read more of our blogs on website design too.
