Choose the image-making method after you decide what the image must do. If it must establish what exists, start with an appropriate record of the real thing. If it must explain a relationship, consider a drawing or diagram. If it must express a character or imagined world, photography, illustration, generation or a combination may work. These are useful starting points, not exclusive territories.
A photograph can be expressive. An illustration can document a construction. A generated image can help explore a direction without becoming the final asset. The commissioning mistake is asking one image to carry a claim its source cannot support.
The image commissioning table begins with duty, audience and placement. It keeps method, evidence and caption in the same conversation so they do not become three disconnected decisions at the end.
Separate the job of the cover from the job of the evidence
A project cover needs to introduce a subject and create a useful visual relationship with the surrounding work. Inside a case, a screen capture may be needed to inspect the delivered interface. The cover and the capture can coexist without pretending to be interchangeable.
Our Blankout cases show this distinction. The new covers interpret recognizable ideas from related ventures through our studio's language. The body material preserves actual project imagery and dated website captures. A paper construction in a cover is a conceptual presentation, not evidence that a printed installation was commissioned.
For a product, the distinction can be more consequential. An image used to show a specific item, interface state or physical condition should be grounded in an appropriate source. If the image instead proposes a future application, say so at the point where the reader might mistake it for the existing one.
Work through the actual inputs
The following examples come from RSH, Kickbrand and InnerStunner, ventures related to the same team. They analyse inspected source material and our recommended use of it. They are not external-client results or evidence that a particular medium improved conversion.
| Inspected input | Image duty | Suitable method and placement | Claim boundary |
|---|---|---|---|
| RSH website capture | Show the implemented page. | A dated capture in the case body; a separate geometric cover introduces its character. | The cover is not proof of a physical installation. |
| Kickbrand mineral planes and seam | Express promise/experience connection. | Retain the source relationship; use native drawing and generated card material for its new cover. | An editorial interpretation, not a fabricated client application. |
| InnerStunner illustrated workshop | Give the hiring product human context. | Keep the source illustration identified; derive a shared-worktable cover from its composition. | The depicted people are not asserted to be real employees or hires. |
RSH's website capture is useful when the reader needs to see the compressed type, dark field and particle geometry in context. A new abstract cover can express the faceted idea but cannot replace that interface evidence. Keeping both makes the difference visible.
Kickbrand's mineral image expresses the relationship between planes, gaps and connection. Rebuilding that idea in cut card changes its visual presentation while retaining a source-grounded relationship. It still does not document real construction or show that a physical object was fabricated.
InnerStunner's inspected homepage labels its workshop scene as illustrative. That label matters: the scene supplies character and context, while the page itself explains the hiring product. A real team portrait, if later needed to introduce actual people, would be a different commission with different evidence requirements.
Compare control, not just the first attractive output
Ask how the method handles revision. Can you change the subject without losing the image family? Can you preserve an exact logo or product detail? Can a later maker obtain a new crop? Do you need editable geometry, separate layers, a source photograph, a scene file or only a final raster image?
Native drawing gives us direct control of the Modular cover geometry. Generation gives the Tactile covers a paper interpretation that we inspect and select. The two methods play different roles in one commission. Neither choice establishes a general ranking of tools or a universal cost advantage.
Budget the whole production path: reference preparation, making, review, revision, exports and placement checks. A low-cost first output can still be expensive to revise if important detail is inseparable from the rest of the scene. A more involved initial construction can be worthwhile when many future applications need exact changes. Estimate from the actual brief and provider terms at commissioning time.
Decide the caption with the method
Use a simple decision sequence. Does the image show an actual delivered thing? Name it and give relevant context or a capture date. Does it propose or interpret something? Call it a concept, study or illustration in language suited to the placement. Does it combine actual source material with a new setting? Explain which part is real when the distinction affects what the reader could believe.
Keep technical production detail proportionate. A cover does not need a paragraph of internal process. Its source record can carry tool and prompt details, while a concise visible credit prevents a misleading impression. Alternative text should describe the useful content of the image, rather than repeat an internal file name.
If the article or case relies on a claim about a real result, a caption cannot repair absent evidence. Change the claim or obtain the right source. This is a content decision as much as an image-production decision.
Commission the next usable image
Before choosing a method, complete five fields: what the reader needs to see, what the image is allowed to claim, where it will appear, what must remain accurate, and what will need to change later. Then ask for the smallest study that resolves the uncertain part.
Our art-direction translation board helps define the visible rules. The image-series record shows how we developed a small family. If your immediate question is which images the business needs, that question is enough to begin a conversation with our art-direction practice.