Foundations
Photography
Editorial, documentary and quietly confident — real people in real moments, and the standards that keep every image unmistakably Xe.
Overview
Editorial, documentary, quietly confident.
Xe photography shows established, internationally-minded people as they really are — caught candidly in their element, or meeting the camera in a direct, honest portrait. Warm, steady, human. Never hyped, never staged, never stock. Our territory is mastery and trust: the expert who carries the transfers that can't fail — so the photography stays calm and real. The restraint is the differentiator.
Principles
Three principles define the intent.
Three principles set the intent; six qualities set the look. Brief them together — they only work as a set.
Real
Actual people, real places, genuine moments. Documentary over set-piece. If it isn't staged, it won't feel staged.
Grounded
Natural, directional light; honest colour; room to breathe. Warm and steady — not flash, not hype, not gloss.
Consequential
We photograph moments that carry weight — a closing, a payroll run, a family across the world. Meaningful, never melodramatic.
Qualities
The technical read.
Six qualities define the look. They always sit alongside the principles — the how behind the what.
- 01Light
- A single warm, directional source models the subject with soft chiaroscuro — a gentle highlight on one side of the face, soft shadow on the other. Low-key and atmospheric: dimensional, never flat, never studio-lit.
- 02Composition
- A clean, uncluttered background with generous negative space, never busy or crowded. Candid shots place the subject off-centre; portraits may sit more centrally.
- 03Colour
- Warm but balanced, in the spirit of Kodak Portra 400. Clean whites, never a yellow, amber or grey cast. Let Xe blue live in the design layer, not a filter.
- 04Palette
- Cream, navy, terracotta, warm wood and muted earthy tones. Colours read natural and slightly desaturated, never bright or saturated — warm, calm and understated.
- 05People
- Real, unretouched skin with visible texture. A warm, contained expression — a faint closed-lip smile, warmth in the eyes. Never a posed, catalogue smile.
- 06Format
- The feel of medium-format film, with a shallow depth of field: subject sharp, background softly out of focus.
Categories
Two personas, five types of shots.
Every Xe image starts with one of two high-level personas — Business or Consumer. Within each, the same five types of shots repeat, so the system stays consistent across both audiences.
The two personas
Business
Founders, finance leads and professionals — the expert who carries the transfers that can't fail.
Consumer
Internationally-minded individuals and families moving money across borders, calmly and confidently.
Five types of shots for each persona
Portrait
Direct and honest, to camera.
Candid moment
Caught in their element.
People using the product
Real hands, real screens.
Product mockups
App and device views.
Places
Grounded in a real location.
When to use
Used deliberately, never dropped in.
Photography is a foundation, but it's used with intent — never dropped in at random.
Use photography when
- It makes the reader feel identified — above all in ads and campaign moments that echo a real person's situation.
- It has coherence with the content beside it. Photography supports the message; it is never decorative filler.
- It plays a supporting role in a richer layout — but only while keeping that same coherence with everything around it.
Don't use it when
- It would be random or disconnected from the message.
- The job is better served by another asset — the line-based illustration system or a clean solid brand background.
When there's no right photo, default to the line-based illustration system or a clean solid background rather than forcing an unrelated, off-brand image. A missing photo is better than an incoherent one.
The don'ts
If it could be their photo, it's wrong.
A quick gut check for anything off-brand. Xe is real, grounded and warm — the calm expert who carries what matters. The catalogue below is everything that pulls against it.
Production notes
How every image ships.
Xe imagery is AI-generated by default, using our in-house workflow. Real photography is used only where it's genuinely needed — a specific client, an event, a legal or testimonial context — and when it is, it meets the same look and passes the same checklist. AI or real, the standard is identical.
Everything passes through design. No brand image ships without design review — the gate that keeps every image on-brand and coherent with its content.
Consistency finish. All imagery gets a unified Kodak Portra 400 colour grade and film grain, so the whole set reads as one shoot.
Designer QA checklist
- Warm but balanced colour — clean whites, no yellow, amber, orange or grey cast
- Low-key, soft directional light with gentle chiaroscuro — not flat or bright daylight
- Shadows lifted and matte — not crushed to pure black
- Real, unretouched skin with visible texture — no plastic, waxy or over-smoothed look
- Warm, contained expression — a faint closed-lip smile, never a wide grin or stern face
- Clean, uncluttered background with negative space
- Subject off-centre (candid) or composed (portrait) — not stiff corporate-stock framing
- Coherent with the content it sits beside
- Final asset upscaled — no low-res images shipped