Imagery

Philosophy

Throughout the CareCredit website, a variety of different images are used to enhance the communication effectiveness and to visually complement the design elements on the various pages.

CareCredit is a brand that helps people enjoy life more, live a little healthier and feel better about themselves. The wonderful thing about photography is that it works on two levels: It depicts the subject of the photo (and tells us what's happening). But even more importantly, it creates a feeling that comes from capturing a moment in time. It conveys a mood or stirs an emotional feeling.

Our photos should convey people enjoying life, captured in a relaxed, casual, informal way. We don't want to show people stiffly posing for pictures. We want to capture moments in their lives. We want to show people who are living in the moment, enjoying their lives with a sense of optimism and positive energy. This does not mean over-the-top happy. They're just enjoying life, and we've captured it.

Our imagery should focus on the positive outcome, not the problem. Meaning: Focus on how satisfied and self-assured people feel about getting the care they want; don't focus on the pain and problem and "What do I do?" feeling. Here are some examples of the kind of images that convey the right feeling. (we can insert some examples here)

We have hundreds of photos available in Brand Vault, so use photos we own instead of using stock photos, when possible. They capture the feeling we want for our brand. Sometimes, there are rare cases when we don't have a photo that will work and we need to use stock, but use them only as a last resort.

You should also avoid removing the backgrounds or silhouetting the images. The goal of our messaging is that the credit card can help people in their daily lives and showing people in environments is an important part of telling that story. The examples below show headline treatments that work using photos that show people in an environment.

Authentic Photos

Photographs should have a sense of authenticity, genuineness and spontaneity. They need to portray a scene that appears real and paints a relatable scenario or narrative by showing a snippet of everyday life. We aim to use photography with a tone and mood that can be called "authentic."

Example

Example

Why do we want to use this look?

By using photos that have relatable subject matter and are shot in a natural spontaneous way, we can inject a sense of genuine narrative into the imagery. The viewers can emotionally engage with this imagery, and put themselves into the photo—allowing them to connect with the CareCredit brand.

In terms of style, we want CareCredit to have a modern contemporary look. Currently the natural-looking photo is a popular style employed by design leaders. They use this style for the same reason as stated before - emotional engagement and relatable narratives.

With this in mind, it is crucial that photography used by CareCredit across all channels is consistent and follows these ideas. By tying together the photographic elements under this one style along with the new CareCredit graphics, we can create a very strong brand design language.

The use of color in photos should incorporate CareCredit branded colors in order to maintain brand cohesiveness. Photography Colored background and photo combinations should be chosen carefully to complement each other.

In order to maintain compliance with the WCAG2.0 guidelines, if text will be placed within an image, it is important to choose imagery with backgrounds that can be made white within the area where text will be placed. See the text in Images section of https://carecredit.com/styleguide/design-elements/images/ for more details.

Examples

Photos should be shot in a natural environment to capture the feeling of everyday life. This includes scenes with proper lighting and color palette. Models should be dressed to compliment the brand colors, or includes neutrals to not take away from the scene. Please look through the hundreds of CareCredit photo options available in the Brand Vault before choosing stock photography.

Lighting

Photos must be shot with all or primarily natural light. An even spread of lighting is preferred, like the image below.

Example

Example

Image Color Palette

The use of color in photos should incorporate CareCredit branded colors in order to maintain brand cohesiveness. Photography with cool colors such as blues and greens is encouraged in order to complement the CareCredit color palette. Colored background and photo combinations should be chosen carefully to complement each other.

When necessary to meet these guidelines, elements such as clothing and/or backgrounds should be retouched as shown in the example below.

Original Image

Retouched Image

Example

Example

Expressions

Models must exhibit natural expressions as well. Even though we might want 'the perfect smile' for the Dental market, it shouldn't look or be forced. Try to capture the models smiling by something natural, like laughing.

Example: Dentistry

For the Dental market, we've chosen this image of a family smiling while taking a photo. It shows their smiles, while giving us a window into their lives.

Example: Hearing

For the Hearing market, we've chosen this image of an older couple spending time together. Once again, it shows an intimate moment with natural expressions.

Fashion

Models should be wearing outfits with neutral colors, and low-contrast minimal patterns. If necessary, use bright colors sparingly. This will keep our focus on the people and the content surrounding the photo when placed on a webpage.

Example

This image, chosen for the home page, uses a warm and neutral tone for the model's outfit. The eyewear has a bold frame, drawing attention to them.