Skip to content

Brand guidelines

Photography

Warm, human work in daylight. Colleagues laughing over a document, a coffee poured, notes written by hand, a team at a whiteboard: the people the firm is made of, working with agencies, universities and scientific organizations. One grade makes the set read as one.

Direction

Choose and avoid.

The firm works with federal agencies, universities and scientific organizations. Its photographs show people working well together, in daylight, with nothing added to the picture. If a photograph has no one in it, it is not ours.

Choose

  • Coffee and conversation: mugs on a working table, two people laughing, a team sharing lunch, a senior colleague listening.
  • Working sessions of two to five people: a whiteboard mid-thought, sticky notes moving on a glass wall, a team standing around a table of sketches.
  • Hands at work: coffee poured, a plan written in a notebook, a diagram sketched, a note placed on a wall.
  • People pairing at a laptop in warm light, a system sketched on a whiteboard, hardware on a desk, with nothing glowing.
  • One-on-one conversations: an advisor and a client, a tutor and a student, a colleague talking a point through.
  • Public service and research shown by the people in it: a program visit, notes taken in the field, colleagues around a table with notebooks, students and a professor.
  • Laboratories that look used: someone at a bench, an instrument, gloved hands handling a sample.
  • Natural moments, mid-conversation, with good light and air in the frame so the subject crops to any format.

Avoid

  • Holograms, glowing icons over keyboards, circuit overlays, AI brains, rockets on palms, fingertip efficiency bars. The 2025 site used these; they are retired.
  • Empty places: corridors, atriums, lecture halls, courthouses, the Capitol, skylines, a chair by a curtain, a lamp on a desk, a cornice. Photographs like these were retired in October 2026. The firm is its people.
  • Handshakes in front of a skyline, staged high fives, someone pointing at a laptop with a fixed smile, test-tube staring.
  • Suit-and-tie meetings, a consultant briefing a seated team, older executives in blazers over a stack of documents, and people holding up printed charts at a table. Photographs like these were retired in October 2026.
  • Night, neon, heavy filters, and any photograph that needs one to look right.
  • Anyone else's product on a screen, and any recognizable logo or brand.
  • Flags as the subject. A small, incidental flag on a civic building is fine; a waving flag over a message is not.
  • Crowds, where no one reads as a person. Keep teams small.
  • Words laid over a photograph. Words go on a solid panel.

Taste

On brand and off brand.

A short test for any photograph, set down after the whole library was reviewed in October 2026. If it feels like a candid moment in good light, it is ours. If it feels like a brochure, it is not.

On brand

  • Candid and warm. People caught mid-thought: laughing, listening, leaning in. Natural daylight from a window, with wood, plants and brick in the room.
  • Small groups and pairs. Two to five people. Mixed ages shown naturally, an older colleague and a younger one working it out together.
  • Hands at work. A mug being filled, a plan written in a notebook, a sticky note moving on a wall, a sketch on paper.
  • Relaxed smart-casual. Sweaters, open collars, rolled sleeves, a lanyard. Clothes people would wear to do the work.
  • Creative workshop energy. Glass walls and whiteboards covered in notes, a team standing around a table of drafts.
  • The coffee film is the standard. If a photograph could be a frame from the careers coffee film, it belongs.

Off brand

  • Stiff and formal. Suits and ties across a table, a flag behind the desk, a handshake, anyone posed for the camera.
  • Older executive stock. A gray blazer and a serious look over a stack of documents. Seniority shown by costume rather than by conversation.
  • Printed charts held up at a table. People pointing at a bar chart with a pen. It reads as a brochure for a bank.
  • The consultant briefing the team. One person standing at a flipchart or a screen, everyone else seated and facing them. We work beside people, not in front of them.
  • Gray-brown rooms and dated looks. Dark wood paneling, leather chairs, patterned wallpaper, murky light. Warm should mean daylight, not dim.
  • Buildings and empty spaces. Hallways, atriums, lecture halls, courthouses, skylines. If no one is in it, it is not ours.
  • Two colleagues laugh over coffee at a shared table.

    Laughing over coffee

    Candid, warm daylight, a pair, mugs on the table.

  • Two colleagues post notes on a wall to plan, seen from behind.

    A plan on a wall

    Hands working, notes moving, no one posed.

  • Two colleagues talk over a laptop, a notebook and a mug on a wooden table.

    A laptop, a notebook and a mug

    Wood and light, two people thinking it through.

  • A program worker with a lanyard takes notes as he talks with an older woman on her sofa.

    A program visit

    Public service shown by the people in it, listening.

Before adding a photograph, ask three questions. Is anyone in it, and are they doing something? Would it sit beside the careers coffee film without a seam? Could it be a frame from a stranger's brochure for a bank or a ministry? Keep it only if the first two are yes and the third is no.

The grade

Night and Sky.

Every photograph gets the same treatment, once, in the pipeline (scripts/brand/photos.mjs): color eased back to 84%, contrast softened, the darkest values lifted toward Midnight, a breath of Sky through the midtones and a touch of warmth in the highlights. It is subtle on purpose: the set should look shot on one day, not filtered.

Two colleagues at a whiteboard, as shot
As shot
Two colleagues talk through a problem at a whiteboard.
Graded

Two colleagues at a whiteboard. First stage only.

A research laboratory, as shot
As shot
Researchers at microscopes in a bright laboratory.
Graded

A research laboratory. First stage only.

A talk at a kitchen table, as shot
As shot
Two colleagues talk over mugs and a laptop at a wooden kitchen table.
Graded

A talk at a kitchen table. Dark and warm as shot; lifted and settled.

A coffee break by a window, as shot
As shot
Three colleagues take a coffee break and talk by a bright window.
Graded

A coffee break by a window. A loud color as shot; eased back.

Evening out

The 9 photographs of the first pass were graded by the stage above and are unchanged. Photographs added since pass through a second stage that does nothing to a photograph already inside the range of the first 9, and otherwise brings it back to the edge of that range: a loud color is eased back (saturation held near 0.19), a dark room is lifted (mean brightness held near 112 of 255), and a strong warm or cool cast is settled (within 14 either way, measured as blue minus red). The numbers are in EVEN in scripts/brand/photos.mjs.

The library

84 photographs in 10 collections.

Each has its alt text written for a screen reader, a focal point that holds the subject in any crop, and responsive WebP at 640, 1080 and 1600 pixels. 22 are portrait, for phones and stories. On the site, use them by name: <Photo name="…" />. The files are in public/images as slug-1600.webp, slug-1080.webp and slug-640.webp; each tile also links its 1600 pixel file.

Coffee and conversation 20

Mugs on a working table and a good talk: colleagues laughing, listening, sharing lunch or a kitchen table.

Working sessions 18

Small teams at whiteboards, glass walls and tables: sticky notes moving, a plan taking shape.

Hands at work 13

Coffee poured, plans written, a diagram sketched: the small things hands do all day.

Technology at work 7

People pairing at laptops in warm light, a system sketched on a whiteboard, hardware on a desk. Nothing glowing.

Advisory 5

One-on-one conversations: an advisor and a client, a senior colleague and a teammate.

Data and documents 3

Findings and screens read together by two people, in daylight.

Public sector work 5

People in public service and research at work: a home visit, notes taken in the field, a table of colleagues with notebooks. Casual and human; no flags, no buildings.

Universities 3

A tutor and a student at a laptop, a teacher on a couch, a table of students: people learning together.

Laboratory and science 6

People at benches and instruments in bright, working labs.

Operations and detail 4

Organized shelves, notebooks and hands at work.

Crops

One photograph, five shapes.

Every photograph carries a focal point, and each crop below holds on it. Choose a photograph with air around its subject and it will cut to all five. To move a crop, change the focal point in scripts/brand/photos.mjs and rebuild.

A conversation by a window

advisor-window

  • Two colleagues, one older and one younger, talk over mugs beside a bright window.

    Wide hero 16:9

    Page headers, slide covers

  • Two colleagues, one older and one younger, talk over mugs beside a bright window.

    Panel 4:5

    Beside words in a card, posts

  • Two colleagues, one older and one younger, talk over mugs beside a bright window.

    Square 1:1

    Social tiles, avatars

  • Two colleagues, one older and one younger, talk over mugs beside a bright window.

    Story 9:16

    Phones, stories

  • Two colleagues, one older and one younger, talk over mugs beside a bright window.

    Link preview 1.91:1

    Share cards, search results

Colleagues laughing over coffee

laughing-over-coffee

  • Two colleagues laugh over coffee at a shared table.

    Wide hero 16:9

    Page headers, slide covers

  • Two colleagues laugh over coffee at a shared table.

    Panel 4:5

    Beside words in a card, posts

  • Two colleagues laugh over coffee at a shared table.

    Square 1:1

    Social tiles, avatars

  • Two colleagues laugh over coffee at a shared table.

    Story 9:16

    Phones, stories

  • Two colleagues laugh over coffee at a shared table.

    Link preview 1.91:1

    Share cards, search results

Coffee poured into mugs

pouring-coffee-mugs

  • Hands pour fresh coffee into blue mugs during an office break.

    Wide hero 16:9

    Page headers, slide covers

  • Hands pour fresh coffee into blue mugs during an office break.

    Panel 4:5

    Beside words in a card, posts

  • Hands pour fresh coffee into blue mugs during an office break.

    Square 1:1

    Social tiles, avatars

  • Hands pour fresh coffee into blue mugs during an office break.

    Story 9:16

    Phones, stories

  • Hands pour fresh coffee into blue mugs during an office break.

    Link preview 1.91:1

    Share cards, search results

Film

Ten seconds of real work.

A film sits where a wide photograph would, at the top of a page. It is short, silent and slow: a cup poured, a hand writing, two people talking over coffee. The careers coffee film is the standard, and each film below is cut to it.

What suits a film

  • Calm, steady shots in daylight, held still or moving very slowly.
  • People mid-conversation and not looking at the camera: talking, listening, laughing over a mug.
  • Hands at work: coffee poured, a pencil on a pad, notes on a wall.
  • Six to twelve seconds that loop without a visible seam.

What does not

  • Drone shots, city time-lapses, spinning globes, screens full of code, glowing interfaces.
  • Staged handshakes, high fives and laughter at a salad. Stock-corporate footage of any kind.
  • Fast cuts, zooms, slow motion for effect, and anything with sound.
  • Words laid over the film. The only thing on it is the pause control.

How it is handled

Muted and inline. It plays only while it is on screen, and stays on its poster for anyone who has asked for less motion until they press play. It always has a pause control. Each file is 2.5 MB or less: MP4 first, WebM behind it, and a poster graded like the photographs. The frame is 16:10 on a phone, 2:1 from 640 pixels and 21:9 on a desktop, with the crop held on the film's focal point.

Pairing with color

A photograph on a solid block.

When a photograph needs words, set it on a solid block of Midnight, Sky, Iris or Cloud and put the words on the block, in that ground's own ink. Never put words over the photograph, and never use a gradient or a texture to carry them.

  • A senior colleague smiles as a younger coworker talks, beside a tall window.

    Midnight

    Pale, airy photographs read best here, and they lift off the dark.

  • Two colleagues talk over a laptop, a notebook and a mug on a wooden table.

    Sky

    Daylight photographs in cool, pale tones, from the same family of blues.

  • A chemist in safety glasses works at a laboratory bench.

    Iris

    The second voice: a single person at work, with room around them.

  • A colleague takes notes on paper at a wooden desk.

    Cloud

    The lightest ground, for a quiet note beside a quiet image.

Use

On a page.

Frame

Inside a card, the photograph takes the card's corners (1rem) and fills its half edge to edge. Crops follow the focal point; 4:3 and 16:10 are the usual frames, and a wide band under a page header runs 16:10 on a phone and 21:9 on a desktop.

Words

No text over photographs on the site. In slides and social, words sit on a solid Midnight panel beside or below the image, never on the busy part.

License

All 84 photographs and the 4 films are from Pexels under its free license: commercial use and editing allowed, no attribution required, not resold as they are. Each tile and each film links to its source.

Explore

What we offer

Browse our services and industry experience to find what fits.

A team stands in a bright office, comparing notes on a plan.

Next step

Ready to transform your operations?

Start a Conversation Join Our Team