What should you take photos of for your Brochure?

I was talking to my 1111 class the other day about what kind of photos people would take for their brochure about the High Point University Passport. The typical answer was something like, "I don't know yet, I'll just figure it out."

I decided to hold a class brainstorm session. I addressed the question to the entire class. After a lot of blank stares, one person said, "swiping."

"Swiping what?" I asked.

"Swiping the passport."

Another suggestion was a photo of the menu at the Point or the Bakery. So far, we had the following:

Next, someone offered something that was starting to move the discussion forward: a photo of something you can get with the Passport. I asked for examples and was given very general ideas: food, gifts. I asked for more specific examples, and someone mentioned "a burger from The Point."

I wanted to chime in, so I added "smiling faces". In the past, students would turn in brochures with the backs of people's heads. If you want to see a great sample of brochures with smiling faces, there is a link on Brochure assignment, which I'll reproduce here:
http://beforeitsnews.com/fine-art/2012/12/40-tri-fold-brochure-design-for-inspiration-2457032.html

In addition to my "smiling faces" suggestion, we talked about some specific places one might swipe one's Passport:

Next, someone suggested taking a photo of someone checking out games at the Point. After that, someone suggested a photo of the people actually having fun doing the things that they check out from The Point (such as video games).

Here's a picture of the final board:

We began with an idea of a literal representation of the Passport: swiping it somewhere, and ended with a fairly metaphorical representation: showing how your life feels when you use the Passport (such as having fun playing video games with friends).

Now go ahead and visit the link to the examples of brochures:

http://beforeitsnews.com/fine-art/2012/12/40-tri-fold-brochure-design-for-inspiration-2457032.html

You will notice smiling faces. You will also notice that there are pictures of people enjoying themselves, and enjoying life in general. Notice even many of the people at work in a business meeting are having a good time.

I also want you to take notice of something else: the use of the detail shot. Remember when we were creating our Photo Story and we talked about using detail shots. Notice how many of the brochures in linked website have detail shots from interesting viewpoints.

Consider these ideas when taking photographs for your brochure. Thanks.