The Hero Image.

Strategic narratives can be really intense, especially the high-stakes, hard-to-tell ones like those we produce at humanifesto studios . They're loaded with information that's distilled into smart frameworks, bite-sized takeaways, nested hierarchies, and portable purpose statements, among a variety of other storytelling devices .

But even with the simplicity and elegance that we bring to the information, there's still a need to give the audience an opportunity to absorb the data and catch their breath. That's where the Hero Image comes in. There are three places we typically use it: the opening, the closing, and the interstitial (usually as a backdrop to a power quote).

Today's edition is an interview I did with my beloved + brilliant business partner and Creative Director, Tara Tallman Sollman , to get inside her head and see into her process when she's on the hunt for the Hero Image.

STACEY: I'm so glad we're doing this! So tell us a little about your background so our audience has context for how you approach your visual research.

TARA: Yeah. So I went to school for graphic design and photography, and most of my emphasis was on photography. I think that's why, when it comes to the tools I wield as a designer, photo search and selection is a huge part of my aesthetic and the choices I make. It's definitely one of my superpowers.

I remember being in photo school at Penn State University , and how a lot of my peers weren't always great at picking which of their images were the best — the professor would need to tell them. They'd use a little wax crayon and draw a box around the ones that were good, and I was like, 'I know which ones are good.' I just knew. I would see an image and there would be this hit of, 'that's the one, that's the one that makes me feel something'.

It reminds me of this weird story of when I was little. My mom would go to the grocery store, and if she needed a greeting card we would stand in front of the greeting cards for eons. I'd be like, 'Oh my God, can you just pick one already?' And she said to me, 'I wait until one of them makes me feel something.'

That really stayed with me and that's exactly how I approach searching for photos or finding the right photo for a moment in a story. An image needs to make you feel something — not think something, but feel something.

An image needs to make you feel something — not think something, but feel something.

STACEY: Where do you search for images and how do you stay inspired?

TARA: So I still have a grown-up camera and I take a lot of photos, but I think the most powerful way I use the art of photography is by looking at other photographers' work and knowing 'that's the one.' Or being able to pick from places like iStock or Unsplash where it's relatively low budget stock photography, and knowing when something transcends the project budget or expectation — maybe the image is from an amateur or somebody just doing it for the love of it, but knowing that that's the image.

Occasionally, you get a budget to look at more expensive things, but our world is so inundated, especially now with AI, that there's so many images, and so much of it is just noise. So it's a really good and valuable skill to have, knowing how to pick out from that noise something that's going to make people stop in their tracks.

Like the image we're looking at now [see above] — it makes you stop and go, 'Whoa, what is that about? Why do I feel something from that?'

STACEY: Can you unpack that a little bit? Like, what emotions does this image evoke, or what is it that's going on inside of you? What are the different elements of your reaction? Are they technical? Are they emotional?

TARA: I mean whenever you see an image where there's a ton of negative space, which is the part of the image that isn't the subject, so it could be trees in the background, or in this case, a bunch of white space on a wall, people tend to look at negative space as wasteful, but really it's about attention.

People tend to look at negative space as wasteful, but really it's about attention.

So this space around this tiny computer screen is pulling my attention and making me think, 'Why is this thing precious? Why is there nothing around it? Why am I being forced to look at it? Is it for its aesthetic?'

I think I was in middle school when this computer came out, so I know this was a really big deal. To a modern day viewer, like someone who was born as a millennial or later, they may not understand the significance of this little computer screen.

But I remember when it was a big deal — it was something that was designed to be beautiful and friendly. So I know why it has this exquisite placement on this background. No matter what you know about what's in the middle there, your eye is going to be drawn to it, and it goes against the grain of what we typically see in the same way when watching a movie or a TV show.

Our society has gotten so used to these really quick cuts and edits that started with MTV when everything was this quick cut, where you don't stay on a subject for too long. The camera cuts back and forth and we've gotten used to that.

So when something goes against that grain, like, I was watching Fargo the other day, the new season with Juno Temple and Jon Hamm, and there was this two-minute scene . I actually rewound it to watch it again and see how long it was, because he was walking toward this building where Juno Temple's character was, and it was the most, the anxiety in me just built up to this point of 'oh my God!', just dread and fear for her and her safety.

It's a close-up of him, with watery eyes, the rage building inside. He's upset, but it's really probably sadness coming out as rage because that's how he's been conditioned. But this two-minute scene was so not what we're used to seeing, and it's similar to this image to me. It's making you stop and pay attention by going against what you're used to seeing.

If somebody has ad space, if they're buying a billboard or putting an ad on LinkedIn, they would never want to take up a bunch of white space that had nothing on it. And if I were to present this image to somebody as the Hero, there's probably a good percentage of people who would be like, 'why don't you crop it? Get rid of all of that.' And there's an argument to be made for that. But I think, as we become more and more numb to media and AI images that, at first glance, might make you stop and go, 'hmm,' but then upon closer inspection, it's like, 'something's off there.' Something feels inauthentic or not right. It's this game we're playing with people.

We have human eyes that are looking for something that has meaning and worth, something that looks and feels real and authentic, and the images we use to get their attention have to mean something. Do you want to get their attention and then have them have that moment of 'Oh, that's not real. That person has six fingers. That's not a real image,' or do you want to get their attention and have the pay-off be something that actually matters and brings meaning to the words and the work that are behind it?

To me, that's part of the fun of working with you. I know that I get their attention with the image, but when they land on the content, it takes it even deeper, and they begin to know even more why this image was chosen, and it isn't just a cheap, zero pay-off thing. It's more of, 'I got your attention because I have something important to say, and I'm going to make you feel smarter at the end of it because I'm going to teach you something.'

STACEY: I love that. So when you were talking about looking at this particular image, and you were saying how it brought up all these questions for you, it made me start wondering about your approach to your own inquiry and inspiration and how you're actually going beyond the image itself into the person who took it– like, what was their motivation? I wonder if that's taking it too far or if there is this connection you're making to the artists behind the image.

TARA: Yeah, I don't know if everybody does this but, as a photographer, when I look at imagery I'm always thinking about why they chose what's in the frame. I had a professor that talked about the viewfinder in your camera being almost like a gun, and how you're lining up to shoot something — but we're not shooting deer or birds, we're "capturing" something.

What you choose to put inside that rectangle is meaningful, whether you're conscious of it or not. In this case, that person gave a lot of consideration to how much space was around it, about that shadow behind it, so what are they trying to tell me? And for me, I just see love and respect in this image.

What you choose to put inside that rectangle is meaningful, whether you're conscious of it or not.

There's this quiet honoring of this thing in the middle, and the fact that the screen is blank, with nothing on it, also feels like a decision. It could have been that it's hard to photograph lit screens, especially the older CRT models, but it also could just be that the thing is the thing and not what's on it. That what's on it could be anything, but it's the device and the place that it takes you that matters.

I don't know if that's something that everybody is conscious of that they're doing, but I think in terms of getting people's attention or knowing how it shifts and changes, like in 10 years, it could be that something like this won't grab my attention in the way it does now. That's why, as a designer I consume a lot of media that I'm sort of noticing and learning from. I follow a diverse group of people that I wouldn't ordinarily follow or be friends with in day to day life.

For instance, if I have friends and they have kids in high school and they're on social media, I pay attention to what they like or what they share. What gets their attention? As a designer, I need to know not just what gets my attention, but what will get other people's attention.

As a designer, I need to know not just what gets my attention, but what will get other people's attention.

I think sometimes people think designing is just about creating pixels, but most of the time it's about looking at what people consume and having an opinion on that and putting thought into that and educating myself on what the current landscape is. I'll go on LinkedIn, for example, and if I'm scrolling through, squinting at my screen, what is going to get my attention and make me stop? What else am I seeing? What are the ads like, and how can I make something that is not like that so that it does get someone's attention? I think that's the game that we're all playing all the time and it's always shifting, and I love that part of my job.

STACEY: What is your process for photo search? How do you start? What's the first thing you do? Like when we do our client narratives, how do you kick off your photo search?

TARA: I always go on a journey from the time we start a project to the time the work gets passed to me. There's this lump of time, it could be three days or three weeks, but there's this lump of time where it's in your hands and I'm just kind of waiting for the baton. But in that time you're teaching me. You're interviewing them, you're kind of cracking the nut of like, 'Okay, what is the story here and how are we going to tell it?' And there will be a time where I have an 'a-ha!' moment where it suddenly clicks for me. There's a before and an after and I suddenly "get" the problem they're trying to solve or the way they're trying to solve it.

I often don't bother searching until that moment happens, otherwise I'll probably land on the one liner, "see-say" stuff, like 'this client is a tech company,' and I'm going to go look at purely tech photos instead of finding the real depth like we did for 128 Technology . That imagery became so powerful, and it had nothing to do with what they actually do. It was a photo of a woman swimming in water, unbridled because it was about freedom. And that was the nut that you cracked — it was about freedom. So the photo search was then about freedom. What image makes me feel what it feels like to be free, or like the guy on the bucking bronco who's being thrown around, yet he's still in control and you can see on his face that he's in control. That's freedom. And that's the feeling of employing their technology. So for me, I'm waiting for that 'click' to happen.

Then as I'm looking I'm thinking of the stranger out there, sometimes I'll actually picture a singular person like, 'oh, this is the person whose mind we want to change,' and it may be a specific person or just a type of person, but what are they going to see? In a weird, woo woo way, I'm sort of being a medium for them. I'm putting myself in their shoes as much as I can and thinking about what image pulls at me. It's always about a feeling.

I also do a lot of, you can call it a glance test or a squint test. Squinting is how I get in my body. It allows me to get fuzzy about what I'm seeing and not just be using my brain. When we squint, we're literally making our aperture smaller, we're limiting what we're seeing by making it blurry. We don't think about it, but our eye is a lens with an aperture and we're making it smaller to limit what's in focus, otherwise we're taking in too much information.

Squinting is how I get in my body. It allows me to get fuzzy about what I'm seeing and not just be using my brain.

So as I'm scrolling through dozens of pages, for hours and hours, of pages and pages of thumbnail images, and sometimes squinting my eyes to just — like, something needs to pull me and grab me. It could be for any number of reasons. It could be the subject matter. It could be the color. It could be the form of the content or the concept of the content. But it's got to stop me in my tracks or else it's not going to stop a stranger in theirs.

I then add it to a lightbox, eventually going back to that lightbox, looking at what I have, and sometimes it's even going to bed and what's the image I'm still thinking of the next day or, what's the thing that is so interesting that I tell my husband about it at dinner the next day, 'Oh, I learned about this,' and then trying to explain it, and if I can't explain it well enough, I clearly don't get it yet. That's when I have to go back and ask you 'What about this?' and then that informs the photo search.

STACEY: I love what you're saying because what I'm hearing from you when you're doing photo search is that it's a physical reaction not a mental one.

TARA: Yeah, it's not the mind. It's the feeling. It's the body and it's very quick. It's not like, 'Oh, I'm going to study this thumbnail image for 10 seconds and then decide,' it's got to be immediate or else it's not right. I think a lot of people just aren't willing to take the time to look through that many images.

I think a lot of people just aren't willing to take the time to look through that many images.

They might type in "employee engagement" and they're going to look through three pages of thumbnails on iStock and then pick one that looks the best, but they're not going to find the diamond in the rough. Or sometimes what happens is, I'll see an image that makes me go, 'Oh, what about that?', and then I'm going to go and search a different search term because I saw something that sparked an idea and then that happens sometimes five to ten times where I'm typing in the craziest words because now I know this is the thing I'm going for and it's not the first thing I thought of.

STACEY: So beautiful. I want to go back to the see-say concept because there's something else behind that. It's the idea that, whoever the audience is, people want to work for the epiphany, right? They want to earn the insight.

TARA: Yeah. That's really the role and power of metaphor in photo search. In general, the first thing that comes to mind is usually not the right thing, and the reason for that is that everyone else is also doing it. So that's why you see so many of the same images with stock photography.

If you walk into a healthcare facility nowadays, you're going to see the soft focus, the nurse touching the arm of a patient, and we become sort of numb to the images because they're everywhere — there's nothing original or visceral about them. If you walk into a bank, you're going to see the cool toned, confident, person who obviously knows their shit, knows how to take care of their money. All of this imagery is the thing you would expect to see, and so I think in the work we do, we've got to cut away from that a bit so it doesn't just blend in. It's got to be something that is unexpected or surprising in some way.

In general, the first thing that comes to mind is usually not the right thing, and the reason for that is that everyone else is also doing it.

Take a concept like partnership, for example. Immediately we all think of people shaking hands or maybe you think of a globe with two hands shaking in front of it, like a global partnership, or just two people sitting across from each other at the table shaking hands. Shaking hands is the number one metaphor that's going to pop into people's heads when they think of partnership, and there's nothing more to it. That's the one liner. That's the see-say: Partnership. Shaking hands.

The thing is, most of the time when you're talking about a partnership, it's more than just a partnership. It's a specific kind of partnership. Is it an image of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire dancing? Is it a rocket launcher that's boosting a rocket ship into the sky? Is it salt and pepper shakers on a table that we all see all the time? Why do they go together? How do they partner? Now we're adding another layer of meaning. Are we partners like dance partners where we don't even have to use words, we can just move together and we understand each other? Or are we partners like one of us is going somewhere and the other one's fueling that?

The thing is, most of the time when you're talking about a partnership, it's more than just a partnership.

There are so many ways to think of partnership, and I think people get stuck on 'well, no one's going to understand that if they see an image of a dancer or two people dancing or salt and pepper, they're not going to get it.' But I think we don't give people enough credit that, like you said, they want to be in on the 'a-ha!' — they want to have that 'click' moment. It's trusting the audience to have depth and be able to understand things that aren't see-say. And that's the fun part of what we do, because I think people do respond in the way we expect them to, where it's like, 'yeah, I don't need you to explain or spell everything out.' Like, when we revealed work to them, who would have thought one of the hero images for the Center for Politics would be a glass of water sitting on a table, but it is.

STACEY: Can you talk more about throwing the first metaphor away? How do you know when you've reached the metaphors that matter?

TARA: So I usually start with Google image search, and if we're doing work for a client, say UVA McIntire School of Commerce , I'm going to type in "commerce" or the phrase that comes to mind that describes the client's focus, and then I look at, 'Okay, what's all the imagery? What are the metaphors that people typically use for commerce?' So currency signals, a shopping cart is a big one, a point of sale, someone swiping a credit card. Those are all things that are coming to mind or coming up in imagery when people hear the word "commerce." And so now we're going to set those aside and go beyond the obvious, like, what's the metaphor that isn't the first thing that comes to mind? Throw away the image of the first thing that comes to mind, or the simple metaphor that everyone's using.

Throw away the image of the first thing that comes to mind, or the simple metaphor that everyone's using.

Maybe it's not the credit card. Maybe it's the smoothie that's been made with loving care being handed to somebody, and it's the moment that the two hands are holding it, like one hand is holding the smoothie and the other hand is grabbing it, and it's not about sticking your little card in the chip reader, but it's about that moment of the hands on the smoothie cup.

STACEY: This has been so fun and interesting — I always love getting inside your head! What tips do you have for graphic designers when doing photo search, especially when it comes to the Hero Image?

TARA: Yeah, so first, when you're looking for images, look with your heart and your body instead of your mind. Trust the feelings you get when you look at things. Second, spend more time than everybody else. If your competitor spends 15 minutes on a photo search, you need to spend more time than that because you're only going to see what they see if you're limiting yourself. Be crazy about it.

When you're looking for images, look with your heart and your body instead of your mind.

I think about the amount of time Apple spends designing the box for their products so that when somebody opens that box, their experience of having that product is sacred — the way the lid comes off the box and the amount of slip that's there has been very carefully considered.

So spending eight hours searching for the right photo is really about caring enough about all the people who are going to see the image and what it's going to mean to them and whether they get it or not. That often means not settling for the first metaphor that comes to mind or the first image that comes to mind, like throw that one away — let yourself go there, but then throw it away.

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