Corporate photography along Lake Cook Road
The corridor Henry grew up on. Deerfield, Northbrook, Lake Forest and Northfield hold one of the densest concentrations of corporate headquarters in the Midwest.
Lake Cook Road is the spine, and the corporate addresses run along it almost without a gap. Corporate 500 Centre in Deerfield puts four buildings at 500, 510, 520 and 540 Lake Cook Road, a minute's walk from the Metra station. Walgreens, Baxter, Fortune Brands and Takeda's United States operation are all based in Deerfield. Northbrook holds UL Solutions on Pfingsten Road, Crate and Barrel on Techny Road, Stepan on Skokie Boulevard and CF Industries, which moved its headquarters here and signed what was reported as the largest new suburban office lease of its year. Medline runs a purpose-built headquarters in Northfield. Further north, Conway Park in Lake Forest is a four way interchange off I-94 with One and Two Conway Park on North Field Drive.
The corridor's defining industry is pharmaceutical and medical device. Lake County Partners, the region's own economic development body, describes Lake County as the second largest pharmaceutical cluster in the country behind the New York to Philadelphia corridor, with more than a hundred and sixty companies and over twenty thousand jobs. Abbott, AbbVie, Baxter, Takeda, Astellas, Lundbeck and Pfizer all have a presence in or near it. That matters photographically because regulated industries buy controlled, compliant, carefully documented imagery, and they buy it repeatedly.
Where Lake Cook Road and the North Shore works
Almost every session happens on site, in your own building. Knowing the room before I arrive is part of what keeps the day on schedule.
Corporate 500 Centre, Deerfield
Four buildings at 500 through 540 Lake Cook Road, two of four stories and two of six, one minute from the Metra platform. The single easiest corporate address on the corridor to schedule a multi-tenant day around.
Deerfield, the Walgreens and Baxter side
Walgreens, Baxter, Fortune Brands and Takeda's United States operation all sit in the village. Large campuses, controlled access, and the kind of programs that run over two days rather than one.
Northbrook, Pfingsten and Techny
UL Solutions on Pfingsten Road and Crate and Barrel on Techny Road, with Stepan on Skokie Boulevard and CF Industries at 1 Astellas Way. Northbrook carries the tightest office vacancy on this corridor, which means tenants who intend to stay.
Conway Park, Lake Forest
A four way interchange off I-94 with One and Two Conway Park on North Field Drive, and a tenant roster that has included Pactiv, Pfizer, Abbott, Trustmark and the Chicago Bears. Landscaped, low rise, and a genuinely pleasant place to shoot outdoors in September.
Northfield
Medline's purpose-built headquarters on Lakes Drive. Half a million square feet of it, and a medical supply business whose imagery has to work for clinicians as well as investors.
The I-294 pharmaceutical belt
Running north through Vernon Hills and North Chicago, where Abbott and AbbVie sit. Laboratory and manufacturing environments, which need a photographer who has worked inside a controlled space before.
What Lake Cook Road and the North Shore is built on
The sectors that define this market, and what each one usually needs.
Pharmaceutical and medical device
Lake County Partners describes this as the second largest pharmaceutical cluster in the country. Abbott, AbbVie, Baxter, Takeda, Astellas, Lundbeck and Pfizer all have operations in or beside the corridor.
Scientist and clinician portraits that hold up in a regulated context, plus laboratory and facility imagery for recruiting and investor material.
Retail and consumer
Walgreens in Deerfield and Crate and Barrel in Northbrook, two businesses whose brand imagery is a permanent operating requirement rather than an occasional project.
Library photography and campaign video produced on a cycle, with a standard that holds across a year of separate shoots.
Testing, standards and industrial
UL Solutions runs its corporate headquarters on Pfingsten Road, with Stepan and CF Industries nearby. Technical businesses with technical audiences.
Engineer and leadership portraits, plus process and facility film that explains something genuinely complicated to a non-specialist.
Insurance and financial services
The corridor has carried insurance since long before the Allstate campus changed hands, and Trustmark's presence at Conway Park continues it.
Large repeatable headshot programs with a look that survives a reorganization.
What we make in Lake Cook Road and the North Shore
Headshot programs are usually the first project. They are rarely the only one.
Corporate headshot programs
Whole teams photographed on site in one or two days, to one standard.
Learn MoreExecutive portraits
Leadership portraits with the weight a headquarters expects.
Learn MoreBrand films and campaign video
Directed, filmed and edited by one person, from scope to delivery.
Learn MoreHealthcare and clinical photography
Physician and scientist portraits made on site between commitments.
Learn MoreLaboratory and facility imagery
Controlled environments photographed by someone who has worked in one.
Learn MoreRecruiting and culture video
For a corridor where the talent pool is narrow and shared.
Learn MoreWhy it matters in Lake Cook Road and the North Shore
Two things are true here at once. The corridor holds an unusual number of headquarters, and it has been changing hands. Allstate sold its two hundred and thirty two acre campus, which is being redeveloped. Caterpillar came to Deerfield and then left Illinois altogether. CF Industries arrived in Northbrook. Each of those movements leaves teams in new rooms with old photographs. For a regulated business the stakes on that are higher than cosmetic, because a physician or a scientist whose portrait is five years out of date on a company that has since rebranded reads as neglect rather than as heritage.
Buildings we work in around Lake Cook Road and the North Shore
Each has its own page: what the building is, who is there, and what a session in it involves.
Corporate 500 Centre, Deerfield
500, 510, 520 and 540 Lake Cook Road, Deerfield, IL
Four buildings on Lake Cook Road, a minute's walk from the Metra platform, and one of the North Shore's standing headquarters addresses. If your team is in one of them, this is how a session here runs.
Conway Park, Lake Forest
100, 150 and 300 North Field Drive, Lake Forest, IL
A Lake Forest office park on its own four-way interchange off I-94, with three buildings on North Field Drive. If your team is in one of them, this is how a session here runs.
Buildings and districts we work in around Lake Cook Road and the North Shore
On site at your own office, wherever that is.
What every session includes
The same standard in every city, because it is the same photographer in every city.
Direction people relax into
Most people dread being photographed. I demonstrate, they mirror, and the guarded expression is gone in about thirty seconds.
Real-time review
Every frame appears on a tethered monitor as we shoot, so nobody leaves the room wondering how it went.
One consistent standard
The same lighting and framing used in every other city you operate in, so the team page holds together.
Professional retouching
Every final image is edited personally. You look like yourself, on a good day.
Photography and video in one visit
Filmed in 4K, which means a production day hands back a still library as well as the film.
On site at your office
The full setup travels. A conference room or an open corner is enough, and your team never leaves the building.
Henry grew up on the North Shore and studied at Northwestern, so this is the one corridor in the country he does not need a map for. Programs here are scheduled as full days, and the travel is quoted as a line item rather than buried in a per-person rate.
Chicago companies we work with
We already photograph for firms headquartered here
Johnson + Krol is a Chicago labor and employment firm, and its attorneys are our clients. When the firm opened an office in another state, the brief was not to give the new attorneys a look. It was to match the one already running on its Chicago bios: green canvas, relaxed clothing, warm frontal light. That session was photographed at the firm's St. Louis office, which is the point worth making here. Matching an established Chicago standard frame for frame, from another state, is a harder test than starting from scratch would have been.
IWR North America is a building enclosure contractor founded in St. Louis in 1895. The company describes itself as headquartered in the Midwest with satellite offices in Dallas and Chicago. We built the headshot program that runs across IWR and its parent holding company, MHS Legacy Group: more than thirty people on one standard, with new hires still matching the originals.
Trusted by leading organizations
Lake Cook Road and the North Shore questions
What teams in this market usually ask first.
Do you have experience photographing in regulated environments?▼
Can you photograph across Deerfield, Northbrook and Lake Forest in one program?▼
We are a pharmaceutical company. Can you handle confidentiality requirements?▼
Can you film as well as photograph on the same visit?▼
What do you need from us on the day?▼
Planning something in Lake Cook Road and the North Shore?
Tell me the headcount, the buildings and the dates. A proposal follows a short conversation, and questions are answered within one business day.