Keeping a strong brand image whilst always posting varied, unique content sounds difficult and time consuming – but I promise you it isn’t! Just by following a few simple guidelines when it comes to curating or creating visuals for your business, you can have a constant source of cohesive brand images to use whenever you need – without having to reuse the same five images over and over (and over) again.
brand staple images & brand similar images
Want to know how to choose photos that work well together? You need this post!
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brand staple images for your core branding
Brand Staple:
These are the core images that make up your ‘brand’. They fit your colours, style, niche and vibe and are essentially the ‘shop window’ of your business. They can range from being a selection of just stock photos, to a mixture of stock photos, headshots and product images.
These are the images you will find on your ‘static’ branding areas such as your website homepage, about page, email welcome sequences, social media profile banners. They’re also the images you may use in major ad campaigns and lead magnet promos. Essentially, they’re the images you don’t change up too frequently.
By having a set of brand staple images, you create familiarity and brand awareness on all your virtual real estate, so you audience will come to recognise you. By having a set rather than just one image, it still keeps it varied and stops your brand looking boring. As a guide, I would say between 9 and 15 images is a good number for your core set.
Brand Similar

brand similar images for your dynamic content
By creating two ‘banks’ of images; one which stays the same, and the other you can continually add to, it keeps your brand looking on point, cohesive and styled, whilst still maintaining variety and avoiding you re-using the same image every other day – which gets dull!
Let’s look at some examples of cohesive brand images – for both core branding and dynamic content, all taken from the Tide & Tree library…
Want to know where to use stock photos for maximum impact? You need this post!

earthy brand
BRAND SIMILAR

Collections used:
stylish brand
BRAND STAPLE

Collections used:
BRAND SIMILAR

Collections used:
coastal brand
BRAND STAPLE

Collections used:
BRAND SIMILAR

Collections used:
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Top tips for creating your brand staple & brand similar image bank:
ONE
Use something like Lightroom or another image app to store your images in two folders or collections – one ‘brand staple’ and one brand ‘similar’.
TWO
Within the brand similar collection, you can further organise into subfolders by niche, content or usage type. For instance, you can have a folder for ‘inspiring images’ for social media quote graphics or motivational content, or you might have a folder for ‘mock-up screens’ where you have monitors and smartphones to use when promoting a lead magnet etc.
THREE
Stick to 2-3 collections when curating images for your brand-staple so there’s not too much variety in subject matter.
four
Find an image library that suits your style! It will make image curation so. much. easier when your visual library is suited to your palette. Tide & Tree is the one for inspired, hygge, natural imagery – but it’s not for you if you like bright or feminine colours or corporate style imagery.
FIVE
Set a weekly task to log into your image library and see what’s new, trending or popular so you can download a few for your brand-similar bank. That way, when it comes to planning your dynamic content, your brand-similar bank will have plenty of cohesive brand images in there to choose from already!
SIX
Not sure on your brand image style? Take our quiz and get some free photos based on your result to get you started!
Do you use this method when curating your images? Comment your top tips below!
WHAT'S YOUR BRAND'S IDEAL PHOTO STYLE?
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