Set Boundaries for Illustration and Symbols
In visual system extensions, if illustration is still applied everywhere, the result is often that illustration starts doing the logo's job of recognition.
Insight Series Design Systems Education
Photography guidelines should define subjects, not filter names
In imaging guidelines, when photography is still described through filters and settings, those settings stop working the moment the equipment changes, and the subject is never defined. The safer approach is for the rules to state what to shoot and what not to, and to lock that choice in with subject rules.
Key points
- In imaging guidelines, photography should no longer be defined by filters and settings.
- Left alone, the same problem keeps coming back: settings fail when the equipment changes, and the subject is never defined.
- Start somewhere else instead: rules that state what to shoot and what not to.
- Write the choice into subject rules, owned by the design lead.
- From now on, sign-off rests on one question: without looking at the settings, does the photographer know what not to shoot?
01What Photography Needs to Stop
The first thing photography must stop is describing style through filters and settings. In imaging guidelines, language that persists leads straight to this: settings fail when the equipment changes, and the subject is never defined.
What carries on can be minimal. Only by keeping it minimal can you hold to rules that state what to shoot and what not to.
Rules state what to shoot and what not to. Until that happens, photography is still defined by filters and settings.
02Where Photography's Ambiguity Leaks In
Ambiguity usually leaks in through well-meant additions. To accommodate more situations, people write photography back into filters and settings.
Every addition that doesn't revisit the core problem makes the boundary harder to enforce. That problem is: settings fail when the equipment changes, and the subject is never defined.
03Start with a Negative List
A negative list beats adjectives. Only when you spell out when photography can't be used will the team see that stating what to shoot and what not to is more than a slogan.
Keep the list short, short enough to be read in full before a shoot.
04Using Tools to Keep Photography in Bounds
Subject rules exist to stop overreach, not to collect inspiration. Ideas that step outside the lines can exist, but they can't pass themselves off as the brand's photography.
The boundary holds when the design lead owns it and has the authority to say no.
05What to Do When Photography Oversteps
When a boundary is crossed, don’t just revise one finished piece. Go back to the thematic rules and add the condition that was bypassed.
Then check again with the same question: without looking at the settings, would the photographer know what not to shoot?
Framework
Photography’s Four-Layer Structure
From non-negotiable principles to tools usable on set, each layer answers one question. This keeps photography from being reduced to a style described through filters and settings.
L1What to shoot
This layer states what is non-negotiable in the photography.
L2What not to shoot
This layer turns the photography into conditions that can be checked.
L3Settings are guidance
This layer defines what can change from one context to another.
L4Image selection
This layer puts the photography in the hands of the people using it, and specifies exceptions.
Note: This diagram is a conceptual framework. It explains a way of thinking and is not statistical data. Source: Qingmei Future Insights.
Recommended actions
Action 01
Start from the site
Mark the moments when the photography is actually called for in the image guidelines. Don’t start by rewriting a style described through filters and settings.
Action 02
Keep it to one page
Use thematic rules instead of longer explanations. Keep only what supports the principle that “the rules should say what to shoot and what not to shoot.”
Action 03
Judge it by one question
Before the shoot, ask only: without looking at the settings, would the photographer know what not to shoot? If they can’t answer, it isn’t a decision yet.
Action 04
Name the owner
Design lead. Photography without an owner will be quietly changed when conflicts arise.
Related
All insightsRelated insights
Motion Needs a Purpose, Not Just Energy
In an interface or film, adding motion simply because something can move usually interrupts reading without conveying anything new.
Icons must have a clear meaning
If icon design focuses only on creating an attractive set of symbols, the icons may still need labels to make sense, or people may interpret each one differently.