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Visual Strategy for Michigan AEC Firms
About Us
517 Visuals helps architecture, engineering, construction, and development firms across Michigan plan and produce visual documentation for projects and people.
Our work is structured to support proposals, recruiting, award submissions, press features, leadership visibility, public presentations, and long-term brand positioning.
Our primary focus is completed-project architectural documentation. Many clients also engage us for headshots and team photography to maintain a consistent visual standard across both project imagery and professional presentation.
Our role typically begins as projects near completion. Years of planning, coordination, and craftsmanship come down to a limited number of visual moments. We approach those moments intentionally, not simply to document what was built, but to create imagery that supports how firms are presented over time.
Our Focus
Over the past several years, we have narrowed our work almost exclusively to Michigan’s built-environment and AEC markets.
We partner with firms that need imagery to support both the work they produce and the people representing that work.
That includes completed-project photography, leadership imagery, team headshots, recruiting visuals, and public-facing environments. Each engagement is planned around how the images will be used, who will rely on them, and how long they need to remain useful.
Based in Lansing, Michigan, we serve AEC firms statewide and selectively throughout the Midwest.
517 Visuals is woman-owned and built-environment focused.
How We Think
Photography is often treated as the final step of a project. We approach it as a planning decision.
By the time a building nears completion, years of design, engineering, coordination, and craftsmanship have already shaped what will be seen. Our role is to document that work with clarity, structure, and long-term usefulness in mind.
That means planning before production around four questions:
- Who are the images for?
- Where will they be used?
- What do they need to communicate?
- How long do they need to remain useful?
The same discipline applies to people photography. Headshots, leadership imagery, and team photography are used repeatedly across proposals, websites, recruiting materials, speaking bios, internal announcements, and public communications. When those images are planned as a visual system, they remain easier to use over time.
Photography works best when it is intentional, not reactive. That approach is reflected in our Visual Strategy framework, where projects and people are documented around audience, usage, consistency, and long-term communication value.
Our process is structured to make coordination clear from planning through delivery.
A Brief History
Founded in 2012 by Amber and Adam Suiter, the studio began as 360 Photo & Design, a broader commercial photography and visual documentation practice.
Over time, that work increasingly centered on the built environment: architecture, interiors, development, institutional spaces, and the organizations behind them.
517 Visuals represents the refinement of that direction. What began broadly has become intentionally specialized: a focused visual documentation studio serving Michigan’s AEC market.
Adam’s background in advertising design and creative leadership continues to shape the work through structure, clarity, and long-term marketing value.
Selected Clients
Our work can be found on the websites and marketing materials of firms and institutions including Albert Kahn Associates, SmithGroup, Owen-Ames-Kimball, Kingscott Associates, C2AE, PEA Group, Progressive Companies, Wade Trim, The Christman Company, Granger Construction, Fessler & Bowman, Pace Howe Design, the MSU Research Foundation, Michigan State University, Choose Lansing, The Gillespie Group, and DTN Management, along with many others across the Midwest.
Amber Suiter
Co-founder/President
Amber leads production on set and behind the scenes, helping ensure each engagement runs smoothly from planning through delivery.
Her role supports the coordination, pacing, logistics, and production flow that allow projects to stay organized and consistent.
Adam Suiter
Co-Founder/Creative Lead
With a background in branding and creative direction, Adam approaches photography as both a design discipline and a marketing tool.
His work is shaped by structure, clarity, and the long-term role imagery plays in how AEC firms are presented and perceived.
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