Client: Shell

Project: Corporate photography for Shell India careers website

Location: Bangalore, India

Scope: Large-format image library for recruitment, graduate programmes, and careers communication

The Context

Shell’s India careers platform required a new visual library to support recruitment across multiple audiences — graduates, early-career professionals, and experienced hires.

These images were intended for long-term use across the India careers website and needed to align precisely with Shell’s global employer-brand system — a level of consistency that corporate photography at this scale demands.

This was not an editorial shoot.
It was brand infrastructure.

The Challenge

The assignment combined creative execution with operational complexity:

• A long, tightly scheduled shoot day
• Multiple scenarios designed for different careers pages
• Models, wardrobe styling, hair and makeup
• Art direction, lighting crew, gaffers, and production support
• Remote creative oversight from Shell’s UK-based team
• On-ground coordination with Shell’s Bangalore team
• A live office environment that needed to remain functional

Every image had to feel natural and approachable while remaining strictly within Shell’s global visual and behavioural guidelines.

There was no room for visual drift.

Production & Coordination

This was a distributed production model.

Creative direction and approvals were managed by Shell’s creative team in the UK, while execution took place on the ground in Bangalore in close collaboration with the local Shell team and production partners.

Clear pre-production planning, structured communication, and disciplined on-set execution were essential to keep the shoot aligned across teams, time zones, and deliverables.

Production Design & Brand Control

The shoot was executed within a tightly defined brand framework.

Model casting, wardrobe, and styling were handled by the production team, with a clear mandate to align precisely with Shell’s employer-brand guidelines — particularly around colour, tone, and visual consistency.

To maintain brand presence within a live office environment, large-format colour panels in Shell blue and Shell orange were introduced on set. These were used selectively within compositions to anchor the imagery in Shell’s visual language without overpowering the scenes or feeling artificial.

This approach ensured that the images:

• Remain people-focused and natural
• Integrate brand colour in a controlled, intentional way
• Stay consistent across multiple layouts and use-cases

The result is imagery that feels unmistakably Shell — without appearing staged or over-designed.

Visual Approach

The photography prioritised clarity, restraint, and repeatability.

Lighting was designed to integrate seamlessly with the existing office environment. Rather than overpowering or replacing practical office lighting, continuous light sources were used to subtly enhance and extend the ambient light already present. This allowed the space to remain believable and consistent with how it is experienced in real use.

This approach made it possible to:

• Maintain natural skin tones
• Match colour temperature with existing fixtures
• Control contrast without flattening the environment
• Work efficiently within a tight schedule and a live office setting

People were directed to interact naturally, avoiding exaggerated gestures or staged energy. Composition was kept flexible to support responsive layouts, overlays, and multiple crops across the careers platform.

Nothing decorative.
Nothing accidental.

Every image was designed to function within a larger brand system.

The Outcome

The final image library is now in use across Shell India’s careers and graduate recruitment platforms.

The images:

• Scale cleanly across multiple page types
• Support messaging without competing with it
• Maintain global brand consistency while remaining locally grounded

This project demonstrates what it takes to deliver work at this level: precision, coordination, and disciplined execution, all operating within tightly defined brand, production, and operational constraints. At this scale corporate brand imagery becomes less about individual images and more about building a visual system that holds together across platforms, audiences, and time.

Why This Matters

Careers imagery is one of the most controlled and scrutinised areas of corporate photography services and visual output, shaping perceptions of company culture, diversity, and opportunity long before a single word is read.

This assignment succeeded because photography was treated as part of a brand system, not as standalone visuals. This is where corporate photography stops being a creative exercise and becomes a disciplined, collaborative process shaped by brand systems, production realities, and real-world constraints.