Building a Brand Story for Dr. Christina Vargas
When Dr. Christina Vargas reached out to us, she was preparing to join an established plastic surgery practice and needed a visual identity to match. Her new website was still taking shape, but one thing was already clear: the photos would need to carry a lot of weight. They'd show up on her website, in her marketing, and across social media, so they needed to look like her, not like a stock photo library.
The Brief
Christina had a specific problem with most private practice websites in her field. Some feel overly clinical and information-heavy. Others feel so serious they come across as cold. She wanted neither. Her goal was a brand that felt professional, but also warm, approachable, and real, something that could build trust with prospective patients before they ever stepped into her office.
To get everyone aligned on the look and feel, Christina put together a Pinterest board of reference images ahead of time, giving us a shared visual language for wardrobe, posing, and overall tone before the first session even started.
The Package
Christina booked our Full Brand Story collection, our most comprehensive package, built for exactly this kind of full visual identity project. It spans two days split between a studio session and an on-location session, with three to four looks and four or more hours of shooting time across the project. The collection covers headshots, environmental portraits, in-action imagery, and detail shots, delivered as a proof gallery of 150 or more images with 60-plus final, retouched images ready for use across her website, social channels, and marketing materials.
Phase One: The Studio Session
We've already completed the first half of the project: a two-hour studio session focused on headshots and portraits. The goal here was to give Christina a strong, versatile core image set, work that reads as confident and credentialed without feeling stiff. With three to four looks planned across the full project, the studio day gave us room to build out variety in expression and styling right from the start.
Phase Two: On Location (Coming Soon)
The second half of the project will take place on location in Cleveland, Ohio, in Christina's own practice space. This phase is where the "real" part of her brief really comes through. Rather than relying on generic stock imagery, we'll be photographing Christina at work, including candid, in-action moments with real patients who have generously agreed to be part of the project and signed model releases for their participation. The goal is a set of images that reflects the actual range of people she works with, different ages, body types, and backgrounds, so the final gallery feels authentic rather than staged.
Alongside the patient and environmental imagery, we'll also be capturing detail shots with no people in them at all: the tools and instruments she uses, the spaces where she works, and the state-of-the-art elements of the practice worth highlighting on the new site. Depending on scheduling, some of this may be split across a weekday evening and a weekend day to work around patient availability.
What's Next
Once both phases are complete, Christina will have a full library of content to launch her new website and support her marketing from day one. Website builds typically take about six weeks once the plan is finalized, so this photography work is happening in parallel to make sure everything is ready to go the moment the site is set to launch.
We'll be sharing more once phase two wraps!
If you're building a personal or practice brand that needs to feel both professional and genuinely you, this is exactly the kind of project we love collaborating on. Reach out to Beck Brand Studio to talk through what a Full Brand Story session could look like for your business.
