35
Retouched images
25 in the original set, plus 10 more ordered after review.
BRANDING PHOTOGRAPHY / PUBLIC SECTOR
Since 2023, JFP Studios has been a production partner to the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office, with four productions in three straight years. The 2024 branding shoot put our eye for leadership branding on one of Brooklyn’s biggest stages.
At a glance
The challenge
Looking Official Without Losing the Person
What we did
From Consultation to Final Retouched Images
The result
A New Visual Identity and a Three-Year Partnership
01 / THE BUSINESS CONTEXT
The Brooklyn Borough President’s Office speaks for two public leaders:
JFP Studios has produced work for the office three years in a row:
The branding shoot is the heart of this story. The office needed new official images for its redesigned website, the press, and social media. That gave us a borough-wide platform to show how we build a leader’s image. Since 2024, Isabel Shepard has led our work with the office, first as press secretary and later as Director of Communications.
Watch the shoot day unfold in Jordi-Lakeem Foster’s behind-the-scenes vlog, or open it on YouTube.
02 / THE CHALLENGE
The office was redesigning its website and needed current official images of both leaders: images that fit their roles and still looked like them.
THE CHALLENGE IN BRIEF
03 / THE CREATIVE RESPONSE
We treated the shoot as a branding project. Every image was planned around who would see it and where it would live.
WHAT WE DID / KEY DECISIONS
Before any cameras came out, we held three consultations in spring 2024: with the press secretary, the Borough President, and the Deputy Borough President. Each one shaped where the new images would live: the office’s redesigned website, its social media, and print.
From there, Jordi built a concept brief and a mood board. Each channel got its own style: formal portraits for city and state requests, Borough Hall portraits for the website, and more casual Brooklyn images for social media.
On July 2, 2024, Jordi walked Borough Hall with Isabel Shepard for about an hour. Together they mapped each floor:
Scouting caught problems early. On the day we walked through, a book fair had filled the courtroom with rows of chairs. We asked the office to clear the room completely for the shoot.
Up in the third-floor archives, we also spent time with the building’s historic maps of Brooklyn.
Next, we wrote a detailed shot list with the office’s staff. The final plan covered six locations: the rotunda, the courtroom, both leaders’ offices, the conference room, and the park outside Borough Hall.
Each office was planned around its owner. For Deputy Borough President Council, we wanted the photos to reflect her years as a senior librarian, so her bookshelves became part of the frame.
Shoot day was July 26, 2024. Here is how it ran:
We finished outside, where the park and the steps of Borough Hall gave both leaders a more relaxed setting.
Proofs reached the office on July 31, 2024. We also sent a short video guide to help the team choose its favorites. The package called for 25 final images: 20 of the Borough President and 5 of the Deputy Borough President. The final edited set arrived on August 7, ahead of the August 9 due date, with a separate gallery for each leader.
After reviewing the proofs, the office ordered 10 more retouched images. Those arrived on August 12, for a total of 35. Video deliverables included:
The State of the Borough is the office’s biggest night. The press needs photos fast, so we planned each address around a shot list from the office:
On March 13, 2024, Jordi photographed the address on his own. In 2025, the office booked us again for April 10 at Boys and Girls High School, and a JFP team covered the night.
Both years, press photos reached the office by 7 a.m. the next morning. The full gallery followed after editing. The 2024 gallery alone held 377 images.
THE BRAND PLATFORM / STRATEGY & IDENTITY
05 / THE RESULTS
25 in the original set, plus 10 more ordered after review.
The rotunda, courtroom, two offices, conference room, and the park outside Borough Hall.
The 2023 Wingate Park Concert, two State of the Borough addresses, and the branding shoot.
More than two years later, the photos still lead the office’s own website. The rotunda portrait anchors the Borough President’s section on the homepage, and the About page pairs it with the two leaders on the sofa.
After the branding shoot, the office brought us back for the 2025 State of the Borough. That made four productions together in three straight years, from a summer concert in the park to the office’s biggest night of the year.
Leadership photos are brand assets. We planned each image around where it would live, from a city request to a social post. When the brief comes from the leader, the photos look like the office and still feel like the person.
It is a planned session that creates official images for press, websites, and social media. The goal is a consistent look that fits the role and the person.
Work with staff early. Scout the rooms, agree on a shot list, and plan around the leaders’ schedules and building rules.
Agree on a short list of press selects before the event. We edit those first and deliver them the next morning, then send the full gallery after.
For this project, about three months passed between the first consultation in April and the July shoot. Consultations, scouting, and the shot list took most of that time. The shoot itself took one morning.
Behind-the-scenes clips and B-roll give the office extra content for social media and future videos from the same day.
Results describe delivered photography and video. Press pickup and public engagement with the images were not measured.
LET'S BUILD AROUND YOUR NEXT OBJECTIVE
We plan and shoot branding sessions that fit the role and the person. Let’s talk about what your organization needs.
Book a strategy call
.png)
