Corporate photography at Aon Center
Eighty three floors at the north edge of Millennium Park, with Aon, KPMG, Kraft Heinz and Edelman on the tenant list. Tenant blocks here run several floors deep, so one setup on a middle floor usually serves the whole stack.
Aon Center is the 83 floor tower at 200 East Randolph Street, 1,136 feet tall and the fourth tallest building in Chicago. It opened in 1972 as the Standard Oil Building, took the Aon name in 1999, and sold to The 601W Companies for $712 million. The site is the New East Side, at the north edge of Millennium Park, which gives the building something most Loop towers do not have: a park across the street rather than another tower. For a team based here that matters on the day, because an outdoor option for leadership portraits is a short walk out the door instead of a car ride.
Aon is in the building that carries its name. KPMG occupies Suite 5500. Kraft Heinz moved in from Northfield in early 2016, taking roughly 170,000 square feet across five floors. Edelman, founded in Chicago in 1952, keeps a major Chicago office on the 63rd floor. That roster spans insurance and risk, professional services, packaged foods and communications, and those four sectors want visibly different portraits from the same room.
Plan the day around floors rather than around the building. Tenants here hold blocks that run several floors deep, so a program often means one setup and a schedule that walks people down an internal stair or over one elevator hop. Confirm dock hours, certificate of insurance requirements and freight access with building management the week before. The full lighting kit moves on one cart. Millennium Park sits across Randolph if the brief wants an environmental frame, and that decision belongs to the planning call rather than to the morning.
We photograph on site, in your own office. If your team is in this building, the notes below are what the day looks like. Nothing here is a claim to a past session in it, and no tenant named is a client unless it says so elsewhere on this site.
Sample work, photographed at other clients' offices rather than in this building. It is the standard a session here would be held to.
- Floors
- 83 floors
- Height
- 1,136 feet, fourth tallest in Chicago
- Completed
- 1972, as the Standard Oil Building
- Renamed
- Aon Center, 1999
- Ownership
- Sold to The 601W Companies for $712 million
- Location
- New East Side, at the north edge of Millennium Park
Working in Aon Center
The practical side of a shoot in this building, so the day runs on schedule.
Dock and access
Confirm the dock window, the certificate of insurance and the freight elevator with building management before the date. The setup arrives on one cart and clears a standard freight car in a single trip.
Multi floor tenants
Blocks here run several floors deep, as the five floor footprints in the building show. One setup on a middle floor of your block usually beats moving the lights, so we pick the room and bring people to it.
The room
A conference room of around eight feet by ten with access to a power outlet is enough. A room with a window wall is preferred, and we meter whatever the glass is doing before balancing the studio light to it.
Millennium Park
The park sits across Randolph, which makes an outdoor environmental portrait practical in the better months. Check what any public space requires for a working setup, and expect to keep it light and quick.
Schedule
Forty to sixty people is a comfortable day. Sector mixed rosters take a little longer per person, because a risk team and a communications team want different framing out of the same setup.
Interviews on the same day
An executive interview or a recruiting piece slots into the gaps in a portrait schedule. The lighting is already built and the room is already booked, so the film costs the day very little extra.
What we make for Aon Center teams
A headshot program is usually the first project. It is rarely the only one, and the same photographer handles the rest.
Corporate headshot programs
Whole teams photographed in one or two days, to one standard that holds as people join and leave.
See headshot programsExecutive portraits
Leadership portraits with the weight the business expects, for annual reports, press and the board page.
See executive portraitsBrand films and campaign video
Directed, filmed and edited by one person, from the first scope conversation through final delivery.
See brand film workRecruiting and employer brand
Culture photography and video made in the building people would actually work in, for careers pages and hiring campaigns.
See recruiting workCommercial and facility photography
A marketing team's image library for the year, so the next campaign does not start with a stock search.
See commercial workConference and event coverage
Sessions, keynotes, booths and headshot stations, photographed and filmed in the same visit.
See event coverageHeadshots are often one piece of a larger photo library. The same visit can also cover leadership portraits, recruiting content, workplace photography, video, or event coverage, and when one photographer handles all of it, the library looks like it came from one company.
See how the full engagement worksAon Center questions
What teams in this building usually ask first.
Can you photograph teams on several of our floors in one day?
Is Millennium Park usable for portraits?
Do we need to involve building management?
Can you match headshots made for our other offices?
How far ahead should we book?
Other buildings in this district
Your team is in Aon Center?
Tell me the headcount, the floor and the dates. A proposal follows a short conversation, and questions are answered within one business day.